FWCS
by WhiteWolf617
Summary: AU continuation of RWBY after Volume 2. OC Centered Story, Reviews Appreciated. Turns out that Team RWBY aren't the only ones wrapped up in the White Fang's plans. Team Fuchsia (FWCS) claims they've been after the White Fang longer than Team RWBY has even been at Beacon, but why?
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the following, save my original characters and scenarios.**

 **This is an AU that follows the main story for RWBY up until a certain point.**

 **Warning: Story contains violence, gore and language.**

* * *

With the Breach contained and the Vytal Festival approaching the teams of Beacon and other academies have been preparing nonstop. Some are still coming back from the missions they had been dispatched to while team RWBY were in Mountain Glenn with Oobleck. The tournament itself has been pushed back a month and a half later than originally scheduled due to the White Fang's increasing terrorist activity leading up to the capture of Roman Torchwick. It seems to the public that the White Fang has the government running in fear and they may be right. Ironwood's forces, including his Atlesian Knights, have become far more active in Vale and around Amity, the floating stadium that will house the tournament. With security becoming tighter and the students from other kingdoms sharing Beacon's halls tensions are running high.

Ronald Feldgaunt and the rest of Team FWCS have just come home from a routine extermination mission but for his team that mission was a vacation. Ron knew as soon as they arrived back in Vale his second in command, Joey Wulfechester, would want to get straight to work on the White Fang who seemed to be making themselves comfortable in Vale while FWCS was away. However, once they got back they found that Roman Torchwick's capture had caused the White Fang to leave Vale. Despite Joey's want to pursue them he suggests his team focus on the tournament as well, teaming up with RWBY and some of the visiting teams in order to prepare. But even with the White Fang out of Vale, Team FWCS still can't help but think they're up to something.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Beacon's cafeteria was alive with the sound of students and the mixed aroma of more food than Ruby Rose could fathom. The amount of food the school prepared daily was always astonishing to her. She'd have even been excited that she had gotten the table with extra cookies if it weren't for what she was seeing a few tables over. "After a whole year Cardin Winchester is still just a bully," She said as she looked over to the familiar sight of Cardin bullying Velvet Scarlatina. She crossed her arms as a frown over took her face. She was sitting with her team and the members of team JNPR. They had barely gotten back from Mountain Glenn and Cardin had already begun to cause trouble again for other students. While Ruby was usually caring toward her fellow students she found Cardin's bullying off putting. It's not that she'd leave him to die in a horrible swarm of grimm but she probably wouldn't be as happy to dive in and save him. Ruby reached out for a cookie to take her mind off the anger she was feeling.

"Maybe when I stood up to him I should have included Velvet," Jaune recalled. Ruby thought back to that time and remembered how Cardin had bullied Jaune for so long. After saving his life team RWBY and JNPR thought that Cardin would have learned a thing or two about bullying their classmates. Unfortunately for Velvet that didn't seem to be the case because Cardin was still holding a handful of ear.

"Do you think we should tell a professor?" Ren asked the group. Ren was usually a silent observer but if Cardin's actions could spur the quiet boy into words than maybe it had become serious enough for them to report, or maybe just do something about themselves.

"Why don't we just help her?" Pyrrha put in, "I've beaten their whole team on my own, it would be easy with all of us." Pyrrha was obviously thinking the same thing as Ruby.

"Maybe me this time?" Nora stood up, her eyes bright with her usual enthusiasm, "Except this time I really will break his legs!" She stepped away from the table and walked around to approach Team CRDL but was stopped by another Faunus. Like Velvet this one had rabbit ears but they were white; she was slightly taller than Yang. Her skin was pale and she had brown eyes. She was lean and wore a black and white flannel shirt with black jeans and a black scarf. Her long brown hair flowed down her back. Ruby had never seen her before, although she wondered if maybe she was related to Velvet in some way. Ruby quickly shook the thought, trying to be more open minded about Faunus.

"How about you let our friend handle this one?" Another student, about the same height as the Faunus with a slightly muscular build, was standing behind Nora. He had short brown, slicked back hair with green eyes and light skin. His dark green button up covered a black v-neck undershirt. He was also wearing black jeans with a white belt that had black stripes. Ruby had realized that there was something about these students. Something in their eyes was different, their eyes seemed harsher than the other students. "He just heard that the tournament was postponed and I think this is a perfect outlet for him." Despite the harshness of the brown haired student's eyes his smile was amiable. If they were willing to step in and help Velvet she guessed the eyes didn't matter.

"Do we have to watch this?" A third, much taller student asked, "I thought we came here to eat." This third student was wearing a brown men's kimono with a brown striped sweater over it. He had a thick black rope tied around his waist and he wore red gloves with circles on them. His long, dark brown hair stopped at his shoulders, falling around his brown face and hazel eyes."Joey doesn't need us watching over him to deal with some bully." Ruby could tell by now, these students were older than her team.

"If he goes over there it may not just be the one," Yang pointed out, "Team CRDL is like one bully in four bodies." The rabbit girl looked behind her to CRDL and the young man approaching them. He was shorter than his three friends, with light skin and wore a wide brimmed black hat, a charcoal frock coat with grey slacks and a grey vest. Underneath the vest was a white collared shirt with a black tie. On the collar of his frock was a peach colored Rose pin. His boots clicked against the floor as he approached the table of bullies.

"He wouldn't need us anyway," the rabbit looked at the blonde, "he'd probably reach.." The Faunus girl was cut off by one her teammates.

"Don't spoil the surprise Elodie," the one with slicked back hair told his team mate. He was watching his teammate just like the rest of them, but instead of concern he seemed confident.

"I don't recognize you guys," Weiss chimed in, "where are you from?" Ruby had wanted to ask the same question but had been preoccupied with Joey's approach on Cardin.

"We're second years Ms. Schnee," the tallest one said, "or do I call you Weiss here?"

"What do you mean?" Before Weiss could ask anything else Cardin's attention had turned to the person approaching him and everyone watched in anticipation.

"Is this one bothering you, Velvet?" The young man asked her as Cardin tugged on one of her ears. Ruby could hear a slight twang in his accent. Velvet looked down in shame as her ear was still being tugged on.

"Joey I…" Velvet was quickly cut off.

"Bothering her?" Cardin asked with an attitude, "Nah we're just playing around." He tugged again and the girl winced. Ruby was angry as she reached for Crescent Rose and realized she wasn't carrying her weapon. Usually the students didn't carry their weapons while in uniform let alone to classes with them.

"Let her go," Joey growled. The silver eyed huntress smiled as she realized that maybe she wouldn't have needed her weapon after all. It felt kind of good seeing classmates looking out for each other besides her team and team JNPR.

"Why do you care about some stupid, dirty faunus anyway?" Cardin asked, tugging a bit harder. His teammates egged him on with laughter. Blake's angry expression deepened at Cardin's actions but for some reason everyone was still listening to this older team of students.

"Because she's easily ten times smarter than you," Joey smirked, "and we faunus tend to actually like each other." Joey flashed his teeth, revealing powerful and sharp canines. His hat also came up, revealing piercing yellow eyes. Cardin stood up. The group of students watching held their breath as Cardin towered over the Faunus boy.

"Well what are you gonna do if I don't stop?" Cardin tightened his grip. His voice sounded as though he had no respect for faunus and in Ruby's experience Cardin probably didn't.

"Cardin cut it out!" Pyrrha tried to cut in but Cardin didn't take his eyes off of Joey.

"Why don't you take your hands off her and find out, boy," Joey watched as Cardin's hand moved from Velvet's ear to a strongly clenched fist. "I mean if you're looking for a fight, I'm your huckleberry." Cardin was over half a foot taller standing straight up. Joey was looking up at Cardin as he brought his fist across to try and punch him. Joey's head easily came back and before Cardin recovered from the punch he had thrown he was staring down the barrel of a sleek, single action revolver with an ivory wood pistol grip, the weapon was polished to silver perfection. Joey had cocked the hammer back before the barrel found a line to Cardin's eye. Most of the people watching let out sharp gasps at how quickly the weapon had appeared.

"Woah," Ruby and Yang were transfixed with the movements.

"How did he…?" Yang was shocked, "even Ruby isn't _that_ fast." Yang was right, for as fast as the huntress' semblance could make her Ruby wasn't sure that she could draw her rifle that quickly.

"These are snapdragons Blondie," Joey said without moving, "fastest pistols in Remnant, right Ron?"

"Give yourself some credit," The slick haired one responded. "Those pistols don't draw themselves." That flash of confidence and pride was showing on Ron's face again. He almost looked like he was enjoying watching his teammate hold a gun to another student's head.

"These?" Ruby asked, joining her sister in disbelief. She looked over to Ron with confusion.

"You two must of missed something," Ron said pointing to Joey's other hand. Cardin's fist was also being aimed at by a second, identical pistol.

"Now the way I see it, you got two options boy," Joey's trigger fingers were slowly squeezing as though the pistols could go off any second. If anyone in the cafeteria hadn't noticed Joey approach Cardin they were aware of it now. "One: we settle this with a real duel, hell I'll let you bring your whole team if ya want or Two: the four of ya walk away right now and I never hear about you harassing faunus students again. Regardless which option you choose if I ever see you put your hands on Velvet I'll put a hole in those little ear grabbers of yours."

"You're just another dirty faunus," Cardin sneered, "I'll duel you and after I beat you, you Faunus will know your place." Somehow Ruby had doubts about Cardin's claim but the size difference was in Cardin's favor. Joey's weapons also didn't seem to have any other forms besides being pistols. Maybe they had concealed knives underneath the barrels? Ruby's mind had begun to wander when her excitement over how beautifully polished the pistols were began to take over.

"Are you getting a white fang feeling from this Joey kid?" Weiss whispered to Blake. The cat faunus shook her head.

"No I'd have probably recognized him," Blake whispered back. Weiss still looked at Joey uneasily but Ruby couldn't take her eyes off of the pistols that were aimed at Cardin.

"Sounds good," Joey released the hammers safely and brought his weapons away from Cardin, taking a few steps backward. "Go get Goodwitch and set up a duel. When she asks why you're dueling an older student, just say you're feeling confident with the Vytal Festival coming up." Joey smirked as he turned back to his team, Velvet following him. Joey's pistols spun on his fingers as they found their holsters underneath his coat on his belt. From what she could gather, the pistols rested in their holsters so that the grips actually faced the same direction. One pistol on his right hip and the second pistol to the left of his belt buckle which had an elaborate rose design on it, this design was similar to the peach rose on his lapel. Before they had gotten all the way to the two younger teams Joey put his hand on Velvet's shoulder. "You ok, Velvet?"

"Cardin is just a bully," Velvet reached up to her sore ear. "he'll get what's coming to him."

"Sooner than you think," Joey winked at the rabbit as she turned and left the cafeteria, "make sure you don't miss it."

"I won't," She smiled and nodded at the gunslinger.

"So.. uh," Jaune was still a bit in awe, "who are you guys? Are you in town for the Festival?" The four students looked at him and then back at each other before they began laughing.

"We're actually in CFVY's class," Ron said, "Team Fuchsia."

"Thank you for standing up for Velvet," Phyrra was still off to the side with her team, "somebody needed to teach Cardin a lesson."

"Team CFVY's always done right by us," Joey told them, "plus Velvet never hurt nobody... well nobody that didn't deserve it anyway." Joey was right, Ruby had never seen Velvet use her weapon. During the breach Velvet's leader had stopped her from using her weapon. Her team had wondered what was in the box but never got to find out.

"His lesson isn't over yet," Ron told the red head, "he's still got that duel with Joey so his lesson is only beginning."

"Weren't we here for a reason Ron?" Elodie chimed in pointing to Chris' stomach as it let out a powerful growl. Ruby laughed a little bit. The sudden change of tone was a little refreshing but confusing at the same time. She thought that older students would be mostly scars and big weapons like Team CFVY but here were two goofballs, a gunslinger and a rabbit.

"Food!" Ron exclaimed as the team's serious demeanor suddenly vanished. Ron and Chris smiled widely as they rushed off toward the food line.

"When those boys are hungry there's not a natural force that'll stop 'em," Joey pointed out as he joined Elodie in following them, "if any of you want to see Cardin taught a thing or two about respecting others you're more than welcome to watch."

"You just want an audience," Elodie put her arm around him and dragged him away. Joey smirked as he was pulled away, he winked at Ruby. He must have noticed her eyes hadn't left his weapon yet. She blushed a bit.

"What was that?" Yang asked her younger sister. Realizing she had been discovered by more than just the gunslinger she had to think quickly.

"I like weapons," Ruby was flustered, "okay?" Everyone began laughing and teasing her about her weapon obsession as Team Fuchsia made their way to the food lines. She hadn't been this embarrassed since she had first arrived at Beacon.

* * *

Ron was stuffed as he watched Joey walking up to the circular dueling arena, wheeling a large gun case behind him. It was a little over half his size. The wolf Faunus looked over to Chris who had a huge bucket of popcorn. "You're gonna save me some of that right?" Joey looked back up at his teammates who were all sitting together.

"Are you kidding?" Elodie called back, "Chris will be done with that before you land the first hit." Joey smiled and nodded. Ron snickered. He always loved watching his team together. Growing up with four other siblings was nice and he was afraid that coming to Beacon would have taken that away from him. He quickly learned that would never be true with this team.

"So what weapon will you be using?" Ron asked him, looking over at Ruby who had also shown up along with the other teams. Velvet and CFVY had also come to join them in watching. Other students were gathering as well, drawn by CFVY's popularity. Despite the fact that they were in the same class, team CFVY was far more popular. Always participating in school events and extra missions. They were practically superstars, Joey often pointed out that Coco's weapon was probably the reason for it. The wolf would comment that it could spew thousands of rounds a minute. Reports from the Breach a few weeks back showed that it had cut down dozens of Grimm and dealt with even some of the largest easily. Joey had been a little bitter they were out of town during the Breach because he always loved a chance to show off. The Faunus set the case down.

"I'm not sure, maybe the Snapdragons?" Joey asked as he pointed to them. Chris shook his head. Joey opened the case and his team could see he only had a few of his weapons with him. Joey went to reach for a long rifle when Ron decided to join the conversation.

"No no," Ron pointed to the case, "make sure he doesn't forget this."

"Oh come on," Cardin was standing at the other end of the arena with Glynda Goodwitch. He was holding his large mace, resting it on his shoulder. The professor did not seem amused with Joey's show. Goodwitch had a knack for being impatient with students. She was always stern and a little strict which Ron could understand, even if it did sometimes take the fun out of things. "Are we gonna fight or are you all bark?" Cardin's question snapped Ron's attention back to the duel about to take place.

"Right," Joey reached into the case. "The _Forget-Me-Not_ , my personal favorite." Joey pulled a lever action shotgun that had a thick, telescoped blade running parallel to the top of the barrel. The blade tip stopped right before the loading breach. The handle had a polished wood look that went up along the grip under the barrel. Joey also took a handful of cartridges from the case and flipped the lever action, opening the top of the weapon. He loaded the cartridges quickly and cocked the lever to chamber a round. "So let's get to that lesson of yours Cardin."

" _This ought to be good,"_ Ron thought to himself as he watched his teammate rest the shotgun against his leg with the barrel pointed down. As the leader of the team Ron got a special feeling of pride anytime he watched his team duel another student or kill Grimm, but his second in command being involved always pushed that pride a little higher.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ruby was happy to watch a duel right after lunch. Tournaments and duels were a great chance to see new techniques or weapons, and this duel was exactly that. "Is that a gun case?" Ruby asked her sister, "he has two pistols and a gun case?" Ruby had been excited when she had seen the pistols but seeing that Joey may be carrying a small arsenal grabbed her attention more than before. Crafting Crescent Rose was one of the proudest moments of Ruby's life because of her love for weapons. Growing up she had admired her uncle Qrow's work on weapons and as a hunstman.

"Maybe he's compensating for something?" Sky from team CRDL chimed in. Yang and Ruby looked up at him, Ruby's face puzzled.

"He's just enthusiastic," Ron was suddenly next to them, "he inherited the Snapdragons from his mother, she built them from scratch. There's a long rifle in there too named Sunflower which his dad built."

"His family builds weapons?" Ruby's excitement was outwardly obvious but she had passed the point of caring, "So cool!" Chris and Elodie had followed to join Ron. Chris was carrying an empty popcorn bucket. Ruby began to wonder if she'd seen Joey's family in the articles of her weapon magazines before.

"Not just his family," Ron pointed out, "getting Joey to come out of his workshop is nearly impossible once he starts a project. The Forget-Me-Not was his first, than that larger revolver. He named it the Just Rose." Chris cleared his throat. "Well he and Chris built them."

"A weapon workshop?" Ruby felt like she was ready to faint. She wanted more than anything to ask about the workshop.

"Calm down would you?" Weiss snapped at her.

"Finally," Cardin sighed as Joey seemed ready. Before they could continue calming Ruby down Professor Goodwitch gave Joey and Cardin the signal to start the match as the screens behind her lit up, displaying a picture of both Cardin and Joey with their auras monitored as green bars on the screen. Ruby's attention turned to the fight but she was still thinking about the workshop. Joey frowned and turned back to the case when he noticed Cardin's attitude. He moved back to the case placed the shotgun back and closed it. "What are you doing?"

Joey picked up the case and carried it toward Cardin. He hadn't forfeited but Ruby was just as confused as everyone else seemed to be. As we walked up to Cardin the larger student began the fight with a heavy swing of his mace. Joey brought the case up and swatted the mace away but Cardin was quick to spin and come at him from another angle. The case blocked the strike again and Joey followed up by ramming the case up into Cardin's chin. Cardin reeled backwards as his aura dropped a couple of points.

Ruby was surprised Joey had forgone the guns and was using just his weapon case. She was distracted by a small chuckle behind her. It was the leader of Team CFVY, Coco Adel. She'd been there with her team and her sunglasses had slightly dropped as she was watching the duel. Joey dodged a strike by bobbing his head back, as he straightened up he drove the case into Cardin's side. Cardin's aura points were dropping but that didn't bother him as much as his obvious humiliation. Coco wasn't the only one laughing anymore. A few of the other students had begun chuckling and making jokes. Cardin backed off and came toward Joey angrily with another heavy downward swing.

The faunus blocked by allowing the mace to slide down the side of his gun case. Joey used Cardin's momentum to throw him to the side as he took to the air. His foot found its way to the side of Cardin's head, sending the taller student stumbling further forward and his aura dropping. The mace suddenly came back toward Joey. The gunslinger landed in time to dive to the side, Joey ending the roll in an kneeling position with his hand still resting on his case. "Gotta be faster than that boy," Cardin stood back up, obviously in pain.

"Shut up!" The mace wielder's voice was full of anger as he stumbled to his feet. Ruby had seen Cardin become angry during duels before, she distinctly remembered his battle against Pyrrha where he ended up hitting one of his own teammates.

"How about a free shot?" Joey held his arms out to open himself to an attack from his opponent, his hand leaving the gun case standing next to him. Cardin rushed forward and raised his mace to strike the gunslinger. Before the mace could find its target Joey stopped the attack by grabbing the pole of the mace his left hand. He brought the mace away from him and with his right hand he brought his gun case across Cardin's face with a loud thud. From the look on his face the sound was very satisfying for the faunus.

"I thought you said free shot," Cardin growled from his place on the ground.

"I'm just some dirty faunus remember?" The wolf snickered. Cardin tried to surrender but before he could open his mouth Joey hit him again, sending him to the floor in a daze. Cardin's aura had become dangerously low as the laughter in the crowd who had gathered to watch was replaced with gasping. Even Ruby was a bit concerned for her classmate, despite the general consensus that Cardin may have deserved it. Goodwitch approached them as Cardin hit the ground, the taller fighter tried to get back up but failed.

"Where did he learn to do that?" Ruby asked in awe. Despite her concern she had to appreciate Joey's abilities in combat without a regular weapon.

"I think it was an ex-girlfriend?" Ron said with an unsure tone as he stole a glance back. Coco laughed again as she got up.

"Joey Wulfechester is the winner," Goodwitch announced as Joey looked at a small dent his gun case and frowned.

"Wulfechester!?" Blake and Weiss shouted together, they seemed angry. Ruby had recognized the name right away but she wasn't exactly sure where the anger came from. Wulfechester Repeating Arms was a quality weapons manufacturer based in Atlas, with contracts across all of Remnant.

"Oh no," Elodie reacted as Ruby and Yang looked at their teammates in confusion.

"As in the firearms company?" Weiss was standing up looking at Ron, Chris and Elodie. "Your teammate is the heir to Wulfechester Arms?" It was all coming back to Ruby now, the company's owners had been killed years back and it had been inherited by their son.

"Owner," Ron corrected her. Joey was the heir to an entire weapons manufacturer, the owner of a weapons manufacturing company! Ruby tried to stifle her excitement in order to support her team.

"How can you have someone like that on your team?" Blake had joined Weiss, "After what that company has done!" Both teams were standing now, Yang trying to hold Weiss and Blake back.

"What's going on?" Yang asked the two.

"Nice work out there Joey," Coco nudged him as he walked past her. Joey acknowledged her but he seemed more focus on what Weiss and Blake were saying. "How about we catch up later?"

"Perhaps," Joey had walked past her to join the teams. Coco seemed annoyed and continued away from the arena with her team. He was carrying his gun case as he approached the group. "Maybe it's the rumors," he finally joined the conversation.

"Rumors?!" Blake exclaimed, "Your company had been profiting off of war for years, not to mention how much you profited from the Faunus Rights Revolution. It's disgusting."

"Did the Schnee Dust company not profit from those same things?" Chris asked calmly looking to Weiss.

"Yea but," Weiss seemed a little defensive, "well at least we don't fund terrorists!" Everyone looked to Weiss in astonishment. Terrorists? Ruby had become genuinely lost at this point. She only ever knew that the Wulfechesters had been manufacturing weapons since the time before the Great War.

"How dare you?" Elodie's eyes changed from their docile brown color to a powerful red, "Joey was just a child when he inherited the company and he.." Joey's hand shot up in front of the rabbit's face.

"Thank you El," Joey's expression was calm and somber, "look I didn't mean to offend y'all. Obviously my company name is a bit controversial, you've been here at Beacon for a year and never met us right?"

"Yes," Weiss agreed. Weiss seemed confused at what this had to do with their conversation.

"Then let's just keep it that way," Ron said, "My team doesn't spend as much time on campus anyway. Come on guys." Ron turned to leave and the others followed, Joey bowing his hat to the team as they left. Weiss and Blake stormed off in the other direction with Ruby and Yang in tow. Ruby snapped a glance back to Joey's gun case, wishing that the argument hadn't ruined her chance to see world class weapon design.

* * *

"What happened back there?" Ruby asked Weiss. The team had made their way back to their dorms and were still discussing the events of Blake's argument with Joey.

"Companies like Wulfechester make my family business look like charity," Weiss snapped. The Schnee Dust company was not exactly the cleanest company in the world. While it was one of the largest it had gotten that way through questionable labor forces and by aligning itself with shady business partners.

"It can't be that bad," Yang tried to calm her down.

"Oh yes it can be," Blake jumped in, "besides profiting from these wars over the years Wulfechester Arms may secretly be funding the White Fang, and I know for a fact many weapons used by them come from that company."

"I thought those were just rumors," Ruby's disappointment was noticeable, "Wulfechester weapons are so well designed! How could they do something like this?" She was becoming more upset as her perception of the weapon's manufacturer was shattered. The Wulfechester Arms she had read about in magazines and the news was an avid proponent of peace. They worked with all kingdoms to fill orders so that their militaries could protect the borders from Grimm alongside the huntsmen. They also were known to give scholarships to combat schools and even huntsmen training academies like Beacon.

"You aren't seriously a fan of them are you?" Blake asked angrily.

"Well they have nice guns," Ruby said timidly, her index fingers pressing against each other nervously. She didn't want to lie to herself or her teammates. "Especially Joey's guns.." This last part was under her breathe but Blake still heard it.

"It's like Ron said," Yang jumped back into the conversation, "most likely we won't run into them so let's just keep on preparing for the festival."

"Guys I know that we captured Torchwick but there is one thing I'd like to check out tomorrow night before we shift our focus completely to the festival," Blake changed the topic. The red hooded huntress had wondered when Blake would bring up the White Fang again.

"What is it?" Ruby asked her teammate.

"Well something has been bugging me since Ironwood locked him up," Blake explained, "The White Fang got those robots from Torchwick who mentioned an employer when me and Sun were at their meeting."

"What are you saying Blake?" Yang asked, hinting that she should just skip to the point.

"What if the White Fang still has more," Blake pointed out, "the tournament was still postponed for a reason and it's not like Torchwick was their leader." Ruby could see her point, in the tunnels underneath Mountain Glenn there were dozens of the Paladins being used by the White Fang.

"You mean your old partner?" Weiss asked her, "Do you think he might still have access to more?"

"I don't know for sure," Blake looked down and away from her team.

"Well maybe we should do some more digging?" Ruby jumped in, "Team RWBY on the case again!" Glad to see her team had something they could throw themselves into in order to take their minds off of the incident with Team FWCS.

"Yea!" Yang seemed excited, "But where do we start?"

"I know some spots where the White Fang likes to keep equipment," Blake went to her book shelf, "I actually have a list in here of places we could check on but just in case Adam shows up at any of them I think we should stick together and take this investigation one step at a time."

"That's great Blake," Ruby smiled, "but for tonight let's get some rest. We can start up the first round of investigations tomorrow night."

* * *

Ron was laughing uncontrollably at something Chris had said when Elodie decided to get up to check on Joey. Instead of going back to their dorm team FWCS had gone to a house off campus that house Joey's workshop. They had all been sitting in their living room, a sizable room with two couches, a fireplace off to the side of the room with a large mantle. On the mantle was a large broadsword with an ornate hand guard and three skulls on the pommel. The couches were facing a large, blank screen. Elodie was stifling a giggle as she left their living room and walked back into the hallway that led toward their individual rooms. She flipped a light switch as she walked toward his door, it was shut and when she tried the door knob she noticed it was still locked.

"Joey you've been locked in there for hours," Elodie was still catching her breath from the heavy laughter. It was hard for her not to laugh whenever the team had down time. She had some pretty funny teammates. Even Joey could be fun when he was in the right mood. Tonight didn't seem like a night where he would be though. He had locked himself in his workshop as he often did when he was upset. Usually a team oriented person everyone was always worried whenever Joey got like this. She pressed herself against the door. "Come on out and join us, get something to eat and.." She was cut off by the sound of an explosion. Ron and Chris snapped up running to the door as she hopped away from it.

"Joey you all right in there?" Ron called to his teammate. Elodie was worried about Joey, although it'd probably take more than an explosion to kill him she thought.

"Sounded like a dust backfire coming out of..." Joey's door opening made Chris stop as they saw Joey in a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his slacks. He was wearing goggles and covered in soot and black powder. He moved the goggles off of his eyes, revealing circles around his eyes where the soot and dust hadn't reached. The four of them were silent for a minute until Elodie's attempts at stifling her laughter failed. She let out a small yelp like giggle that caused Chris and Ron to fall backwards laughing hysterically. Joey quickly joined his team in laughing.

"I think I needed that," Joey coughed through the laughter as soot flew from his face. His teammates were using the hallway behind them to brace themselves as their laughter echoed throughout their home.

"Alright guys," Elodie's giggle had gotten to the cackling level of her teammates, "next time someone upsets Joey Chris gets to use him for Dust experiments."

"I meant the laugh," Joey wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Well maybe you shouldn't lock yourself up with your work," Chris threw in getting up and putting a fist to his shorter teammate's arm. The other three looked at him with a disapproving stare. Chris was more prone to locking himself in his lab than Joey. "Hey! When I do it I'm not upset, I'm just in tune with my research."

"So does this mean we're on for tomorrow night?" Ron asked Joey, his laughter finally slowing.

"Well the White Fang warehouse isn't gonna just handle itself," Joey's face became slightly more serious, "and we need to get that done quickly. They've already caused enough trouble while we were gone." The three of them followed Joey back toward the living room, "So what was for dinner?"

"So glad you asked," Elodie led him to the kitchen as Chris and Ron resumed their jokes.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Blake had led her team to one of the White Fang warehouses she had on her list. Ruby had never seen the list before but she wondered how long it was. It had been a shock to the whole team when they found out about Blake's past but the team leader had accepted her for who she is, not who she was. "Alright this is it," Blake explained as the four girls hid behind a stack of crates. There were lights on near the main door and they could see figures moving. Blake had told them that there may be White Fang posted in and around the warehouse which was why they had come prepared to fight. Team RWBY had fought these people before. Usually they were unassuming new recruits. None of them were as well trained as Ruby's team let alone anyone who made it into Beacon Academy.

"We really have a lucky streak going with this," Yang said as she engaged Ember Celica.

"Yang let's take this one slow," Ruby told her sister, "I'm gonna set up on top of those shipping containers over there to provide cover through the windows while you three move into the warehouse."

"And if any more White Fang show up you'll be the first to know," Weiss pointed out. Ruby nodded and used her speed to move quickly toward the containers while the others slowly moved forward. Ruby was atop the containers before her team had reached the front door of the warehouse. She peered through the scope and noticed the patrol in front of the door had moved away from the doors allowing an opportunity for her team to slip inside. Once they were inside all Ruby could do was wait. Unfortunately she'd miscalculated the height of the windows compared to the shipping containers. She couldn't see her team but she did have a view on the rest of the warehouse wall in front of her. She could have called her team but pulling out their scrolls would have only been a distraction. Twenty minutes of watching the sentries walk back and forth outside was leaving Ruby with a stark feeling of boredom. A few of them had become excited over time but stayed outside of the warehouse.

"What's happening in there?" She asked herself quietly, "I could be missing the fight of the century!" The sound of gunshots inside the warehouse confirmed her suspicions.

"Hmm?" A voice came from below her, "Base this is Foxtrot One, I'm moving to check out a noise near the shipping containers." The voice belonged to a member of the White Fang who was beginning to climb onto the container. "Hey who are you?" The man got to the top with his weapon aimed at Ruby. Her weapon was still aimed the other way, toward the warehouse, but before she could whip it around there was a cracking sound. The man fell forward and was caught by a slightly shorter man who was behind him. The shorter man had a long black duster with plated armor underneath, he was also wearing combat boots and had various belts with bullets stored along them. He had a helmet with a metal gas mask that had lenses that were glowing a dim green color. The side of the helmet had a square device with a small lens and a tiny antenna sticking out of the top. His shoulders had thick metal armor pads that wrapped around them. Each piece of shoulder armor had a small, peach colored flower on them. His belt buckle also had an elaborate rose design on it. He aimed the scoped lever action rifle he was carrying at the girl as his hand came up to his helmet, pressing against the box.

"Base this is Foxtrot One," the voice that came from the mask matched the voice of the White Fang soldier, "it was just some birds, returning to general patrol." Ruby wasn't sure about this newcomer but she didn't want to test him. His rifle was still trained on her head and her rifle wasn't light enough to whip around in time. She thought about pulling the trigger and letting the recoil take her back toward him but instead she stopped herself. She noticed scratch marks on his armor, like battle scars across his chest and on his shoulders. Even his helmet had a stray scratch on the top of it. He was someone with combat experience that may have out classed hers so she tried a different approach.

"Who.." Ruby stuttered as she put Crescent Rose down, "who are you?"

"That's not important," The masked man's voice was hushed and mechanically altered by the mask, "what are you doing here, little lady?" Ruby lowered her weapon to the ground and put her hands up. There was a slight accent but the voice masking was covering a lot of it.

"I'm a huntress with Beacon academy," she stated.

"In training," He responded.

"What?" She was confused.

"You're a huntress in training," he took the barrel away from her and crouched, "pick up your weapon. I know who you are so I'll ask again. What are you doing here?" He moved forward and lay prone next to her, sighting his rifle in on the sentries near the warehouse. She breathed a sigh of relief as she got the feeling he was a fellow huntsmen. As he lay next to her she recognized the scratches as claw marks, most likely from fighting Grimm.

"My team and I are investigating this warehouse," Ruby reached for her weapon and crouched next to him, finding her scope and looking through it once more she found the sentries that the masked man was looking at. "Who are you anyway?"

"You haven't figured it out?" She looked him over again, staring at the flower on his shoulder armor.

"The rose looks so familiar," she was still trying to place it when he flipped his duster back revealing the rest of his gun belts on his left side which held revolvers on his sides and one on his back. "Joey?" Her face lit up with sudden realization. That gunslinger from before. The one with the gun case was loaded down with enough ammo to take down the warehouse on his own and he'd just saved her life probably.

"At your service," The mask stopped masking his voice but it was still slightly muffled through the pentagon filter, "so how long have you been here?"

"About 20 minutes but I haven't heard a thing from inside," Ruby explained. Joey looked over to her. She couldn't see his expression but his head suddenly snapping away from his scope told her something wasn't right.

"That's not good," Joey stood up slightly, "five minutes ago my team entered that warehouse in order to take out the White Fang and retrieve any Wulfechester brand gear that they find. However, one minute ago I spotted you up on these containers and thirty seconds ago I got confirmation that your team is in trouble." His matter of fact tone was unnervingly calm.

"Trouble?" Ruby asked concerned, "What kind of trouble?" She had regretted her mistake with the containers but she couldn't reposition in case her team ran back to her for cover.

"I'll tell you once we get onto the roof," Joey pointed as he jumped down from the container, "right now both teams need sniper support." Joey was quick but Ruby was faster in terms of raw speed.

"Race you there," She joked to take the nervous edge away. She decided to show off for the gunslinger a bit by beating him to the warehouse itself. Only to realize she hadn't seen a ladder or anyway onto the roof.

"Need some help there?" He sounded like he was smirking but with the helmet on she couldn't tell. Joey pointed at a ladder off to the side of where they were and she made her way to it. She was about to climb it when he stopped her.

"Usually I'd say ladies first," He said as his helmets lenses drifted down to her skirt, "but maybe I ought to head up before you." Ruby hadn't even thought of it as her cheeks turned a light shade of red.

"Right," She stepped out of his way as he grasped onto the ladder.

* * *

Yang was angry, visibly angry, her eyes were glowing a powerful red and her hair was emitting a yellow aura by the time Weiss and Blake had entered the room. The sight of Yang's opponent horrified the cat girl. It was her old partner, Adam. His sword was sheathed and he was waiting for Yang's next attack. "Yang don't do it!" Blake tried to call to her teammate but it was too late. Adam stopped the attack by slightly unsheathing his blade and the energy from her punch dissipated. He then quickly pushed her back and flipped backwards, landing a powerful kick on her chin as he put distance between the two. Yang was sent flying backwards as a couple dozen White Fang soldiers entered the room. Blake and Weiss had just taken down several other members but there were so much more inside than she had anticipated. After the breach they must have been preparing to move more of their gear. Reports had shown no White Fang activity since the breach but they were looking at proof that the White Fang wasn't gone yet.

"Oh Blake," Adam said, "have you come back to us?" His smirk seemed to say that he knew her answer. The fact that he even asked made Blake angry. She'd trusted him for years but after the train incident she realized how much of a monster her partner had become. She couldn't have stayed at his side any longer, let alone fight for the White Fang anymore.

"Adam just give up," She told him, "your lieutenant is knocked out in that last room and your next." The false confidence in Blake's voice helped her to almost fool herself. Unfortunately she still had a building knot in her stomach. She'd seen Adam in action before. He'd destroyed a heavily armored Spider Droid with one strike. The mechanical creature had been disintegrated right before her and she feared he'd do the same to her team.

"I'm pretty sure that you're the ones surrounded," Adam pointed out, "or do we have to do this the hard way?" Yang was slowly standing up and recovering from the kick she received. Blake couldn't check on her though because there were several White Fang soldiers rushing into the room.

"Don't be so dramatic," Blake prepared herself for the soldiers' attack but before they could move a fireball exploded at Adam's feet. He jumped away from it and looked for the new attacker. A large, hooded man with a brown male's kimono underneath a brown striped sweater and red, glowing gloves dropped down behind several of the White Fang members. He quickly swept three of their legs with a kick and as all of them flew up into the air he brought his long arm across them in a heavy strike. The three of them flew and hit the wall hard, falling to ground without moving. On the other side of the room a man in olive green combat gear, with black combat armor similar to the Atlesian military armor dropped down. His face was covered by a black bandana and he had an olive green beret with a patch on the front of it. He was holding an automatic rifle with a long, curved clip, a square sight on the top and a bayonet attached to the wooden grip that he fired down into the crowd as he fell. Once he landed he dropped the weapon and it hung from his body on a single point sling. His hand reached toward his back, finding the large broad sword that was held there by a magnetic holder. The handle of the weapon had an ornate skull pattern on the bottom and the hand guard was a bit over sized. The blade itself was wide. He spun and swung the sword in a horizontal slash to dispatch several more soldiers at once, their auras protecting them as the blade struck.

"Who are these guys?" Yang asked as she punched one of the White Fang soldiers. Blake hadn't noticed that her partner had gotten back up. While Blake wanted to stop the White Fang she wasn't looking to kill them so she counted the soldiers hit by that sword as lucky.

"They look like…" Weiss was about to take a guess but a dark figure in a black hood dropped down behind Adam. The form was feminine and was holding a compound bow, an arrow already pulled backward and trained on the back of Adam's head. She wore an armored black jumpsuit with a white cross design that lead down the center of her chest and down her back. The jumpsuit hugged against her skin tightly, showing her lean, muscular physique and had shoulder pads, arm guards, knee and shin armor. She also wore gloves and had a black mask on under her hood that left her eyes exposed. Blake could make out that her eyes were a dark brown.

"Don't even think about it," The hooded girl said to the bull faunus. He had been reaching for the hilt of his sword but stopped. The others had finished up the remaining soldiers and were moving toward Adam. The one with the sword had placed it back onto his back and took his assault rifle back up, training the sight on Adam's chest. The larger hooded figure's fists hadn't left their fighting stance yet as he faced the swordsman. The rest of Team RWBY moved toward him as well, their weapons finding their way to him. Adam snickered as his coat and hair began to glow.

"Oh no," Blake breathed out. Blake recognized what Adam was preparing to do. He must have absorbed the energy from Yang's attack and was preparing to release an attack that would send all of the absorbed energy back to them. He must have been focusing the energy from the time he knocked Yang to the floor. "Everyone get away from..!" Her scream was cut off by an order from above.

"Ruby fire!" The cat recognized Joey's voice coming from above them, he was crouched inside of a window of the warehouse where the roof segmented to a second higher part.

"Got it!" Ruby, who was in a similar window across from her fellow sniper, responded as she pulled the trigger of Crescent Rose. Joey followed by firing a shot as well. Ruby's bullet found its mark on Adam's mask while Joey's hit his hand away from the hilt of his weapon.

"Blow him away!" The man with the rifle called to his teammate. The hooded man nodded by thrusting his fists forward as the assault rifle crackled, a burst of shells landing on Adam's chest. The thrust of the large's fists sent a powerful gust of wind toward the bull which caused him to fly backwards. The archer side stepped and allowed him to land hard against the wall. Adam braced himself against his weapon and used it as a crutch.

"Snow," Joey called, "a little distraction?" The archer responded by aiming her arrow to the roof, the wheels on the end of her bow had inner wheels with dust vials inside. Energy from the dust traveled down the bowstring and into the arrow as she let it fly upwards. There was a powerful flash of light accompanied by a deafening sound.

* * *

Adam was blinded by the small sun that had just appeared before his eyes. This coupled with Blake showing up had put him in a foul mood. Blake had abandoned him at a critical time in his plans but he'd been working well without her. When his vision had returned the intruders were gone and he noticed a slight beeping sound coming from the crates of weapons marked "Wulfechester Arms" in the corner.

"Shit," he cursed as the devices inside went off. He expected an explosion but instead there was another bright light emitting from the crate. Once it tapered off he checked inside the crate to find that the weapons inside had been melted down to slag. These masked assholes had been sabotaging the White Fang's efforts for over three years now and he finally had them. He'd have been able to kill them right there if Blake hadn't warned them.

* * *

The eight hunters had made it to an alley away from the warehouse when they finally stopped. "So much for not running into each other again," Ron said as he pulled his bandana down and caught his breath. He'd led his team into that and if it weren't for team RWBY and Joey's rifle they might not have made it out. Blake's reaction to the masked man's attack told him it must have been powerful.

"I can't lie," Yang told him, "I'm glad we did run into each other." Joey was approaching the group as he removed his helmet and shouldered his rifle with a strap attached to it.

"Hello ladies," he greeted them, "how's your day today?" Ron glared at his teammate. Despite the wolf's abilities he was always surprised when Joey brushed off run ins with death.

"Was that supposed to be charming?" Weiss sneered, "How do we know this wasn't a set up?"

"I don't know," Yang grinned, "between that and saving our lives I'm feel pretty charmed."

"Down boy," Elodie removed her hood and mask, her ears now free to stick back up, "Weiss I'd be more appreciative if I were you, the way Blake screamed I don't think we were going to survive that guy's attack." Ron could feel that Elodie was becoming annoyed by Joey's flirting with the huntresses but knowing the rabbit she'd probably not say anything outright to Joey any time soon. Ron was just happy to see that their last meeting with the huntresses didn't permanently effect Joey's mood. When Joey got into one of his moods it was hard to drag him out and Ron preferred his second in command to be his usual friendly, teamwork oriented self. Even though Elodie's eyes hadn't changed Ron had been her partner long enough to know when she wasn't happy about something.

"Yea Blake," Ruby pointed out, "what was up with that?"

"She can explain later," Ron told Ruby, his rifle still aimed back the way they had come. He was leaned against the alley wall to keep his profile small. "Right now we're not sure if the White Fang are going to follow us. You four need to get back home, meet us tomorrow and we can compare notes."

"Why can't we just compare notes now?" Blake asked him. Ron wasn't sure if he even had time to explain that. In the two years they'd been fighting the White Fang they'd never taken off their masks and yet here they were with these huntresses letting their guard down.

"You want the honest answer?" Ron asked her. Team RWBY nodded and Ron looked over to Chris who removed his hood. The honest answer probably fell somewhere along the lines of not wanting to litter the streets with injured White Fang and risking an open firefight but he didn't need to tell them all of that. "We don't need the White Fang tracking us so we need to split up. We normally don't review ops like this til we're back home. I'll take Chris, Elodie you take Joey and meet us back home."

Joey opened his scroll, "Ruby bring your team to here and we'll tell you everything we've found about the White Fang's plans, as long as you're willing to share what you were all doing there." Ron had a feeling that taking this team back to their home away from home might not be a good idea but it was also better than meeting on campus where other students could listen in.

"Wait," Ruby's excited voice was slowly showing itself. "Is that where the weapon workshop is?" Joey looked at Ron and then back to the other team's leader. This girl was either caught up in Joey's charm or a legit gun nut.

"Yes," Joey answered her as he showed her where they needed to go on his scroll.

"We'll be there!" Ruby agreed as she memorized the location.

"Good to hear," Elodie said, her eyes turning a slight green color, "guess that means Joey will have another reason to lock himself in his workshop." With the way Elodie's eyes had changed Ron hoped to himself that Ruby was just a gun nut. The group approached the end of the alley and Joey placed his helmet back over his head. The two groups split up, running off into the dark city.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ruby and her team had reached the border of Beacon's campus and the Forest of Forever Fall where Joey had instructed them to go the night before. "Why do these guys have a house separate from the student dorms?" Weiss asked, "I'm rich and I don't throw my money around buying us a house." She had a point but there had to be a reason. They were second year students and highly skilled. Although they were still close to Beacon the team was on guard for Grimm.

"Maybe if you did people wouldn't call you ice queen," Yang joked, obviously annoying her teammate, "oh come on Weiss, I'm kidding. I'm sure Joey has more money to throw around than you anyway… being the sole heir and all." Weiss had never seemed like the kind of person to just use her family's money. Sure she had lots of possessions when she first arrived at Beacon but it was mostly Dust and she didn't just go around throwing money at people.

"Yang I don't think you're helping," Blake pointed out.

"Whatever," Yang put her hands behind her head as they walked forward. There was an old looking house in the trees ahead of them. The dark brown wood was a heavy contrast against the bright oranges and reds. Some of the roofing looked loose and the wood stairs that led up to the porch. Ruby could have sworn she heard the house creak.

"Is that their house?" Weiss asked in disbelief, "Seriously?" Ruby had a similar feeling. For a house funded by a company as rich as the Wulfechester family it looked like it was about to fall over.

"I'm telling you Weiss," Yang laughed, "just a little bit out of your family's pocket could go a long way." The heiress pouted as the four girls continued toward the building.

"So what do you think these girls were up to last night?" Elodie came up behind Joey who was sitting on the couch. He was wearing black slacks with a red vest and white undershirt, as well as his Snapdragon gun belt. Her head rested on top of his as she looked at the screen in their living room. Joey was aware of her but he was focusing on the screen and wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. Chris and Ron were on the other couch, Chris holding a bag of chips.

"My guess is it has something to do with Weiss," Chris pointed at the same screen as he fished into the bag and pulled out a single chip. A video of the girls approaching the house through the forest was being displayed.

"Nah," Joey pressed a button on the remote and the feed zoomed in on Blake, "this one doesn't show it but she's a faunus too."

"That nose of your coming in handy as always," Ron smirked, "so what? She's got a grudge against the White Fang like you?" Ron reached over into Chris' bag and took a handful of chips. He brought the chips back to himself, his hand hovering over his tan shorts.

"Hey now," Joey pointed the remote at his friend, "it ain't some grudge. I just don't want my name plastered all over their actions."

"From the way she reacted when that man attacked us," Elodie walked around the couch and sat next to Joey, "maybe she knew him? It definitely felt like she knew him." Joey didn't like the idea that Blake could be involved with the White Fang but Ron was right. His nose told him that she was a faunus and Elodie was sensing something about her too. He was beginning to wonder if she could even be trusted.

"Why don't we just ask them?" Chris pointed out that the girls had arrived at the door, Joey shut the feed off and stood.

Ruby reached out for the door bell. "Are we sure this is it?" Weiss asked again, obviously not wanting to believe that these students really had their own house.

"This is where Joey said it would be," Ruby's hand connected with the doorbell and the four girls waited a few moments. Ruby was having trouble understanding her team's dislike for these students. They were fellow huntsmen and Ruby's gut was telling her they weren't bad people. She was usually able to trust herself when judging people's character.

Ron opened the door and they could see inside. "Hey," Ron greeted them, "come on in. Everyone else is in the dining room back this way." Ron motioned them to come in and they followed him through the hallway that wrapped around the living room.

"See Weiss," Yang continued her joke pointing at the fire place, "we could have one of those." Overhearing the blonde, Ron stifled a laugh. Once they got to the dining room they found Joey, Chris and Elodie sitting at a large table. There were enough chairs for the eight of them to sit.

"Mornin' ladies," Joey greeted them as they sat. Ruby was still taking in the rest of the house. There were shelves with old artifacts that looked like they had come from all over Remnant. It was like they'd taken Oobleck's history class and covered their house in it.

"What is this?" Weiss asked angrily, "You show up acting like heroes last night, then you invite us here to this rickety old shack? This isn't some social gathering. What were you doing at that warehouse last night?"

"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed, she knew that Weiss had a valid reason for asking but she didn't want to seem rude. It was too late for that though because Weiss had already started questioning them.

"No," Elodie put a hand up to calm Ruby, "she's got a point. Look we're just trying to make you comfortable."

"With what?" Blake asked, "an old house paid for with blood money. Joey I still don't know if we can trust you. Your company helps the White Fang!"

"This again," Elodie's hand went to her face as her ears slightly fell. Ruby noticed that Elodie's eyes had become a light shade of red. From the first time she'd met the rabbit she couldn't understand the change in eye color.

"If you'd give me a chance to explain," Joey was becoming frustrated, "you'd know that I was at that warehouse last night destroying any equipment related to my company!"

"Why?" Blake was now standing, "so you can cover your tracks?"

"No!" Joey joined her, both of them standing and glaring at one another, "I've been hunting the White Fang for years now trying to reclaim my company's weapons or destroying them so that they can't use 'em! You think being discriminated against as a faunus is hard? Imagine being the faunus 'responsible for all the pain in the world.' My family, years before I was born started a weapons manufacturer and I just inherited it!" Despite the genuine sadness in his eyes Ruby's team didn't relent. Ruby did notice that Joey was faring better than he had during their first meeting because he hadn't stormed off like last time.

"And how can we trust that without any evidence?" Weiss pointed out, "when we left that warehouse they still had crates of your company's tech and gear."

"Weiss that's not entirely true," Ron pulled out his scroll, as he pressed a button a screen dropped onto the wall in front of the table and everyone turned to face it. The large screen came to life, depicting a view from where Joey had shot Adam. "Now look at those crates carefully." As Adam was recovering from the flash arrow Elodie had fired they saw the boxes light up in small contained flames.

"We did destroy it," Chris explained, "While you were distracting the White Fang we placed dust charges into all the crates."

"And how can we be sure that wasn't a set up?" Blake's trust was still unearned and Joey was still standing across from her, both of them in an angry standoff. "Ruby you said that spy you fought on the night of the dance used a bow." Blake looked over to Elodie. Joey's anger became more pronounced. For someone armed and obviously angry Ruby noticed his hand never left the table. She was still nervous of his pistols. He'd proved how fast he was and even though her team all had their weapons with them she wasn't sure they could outdraw him.

"Down," Ron looked to his teammate, "Joey you know that she's just frustrated, like you said she probably knows that guy from last night. We're all on the same side here."

"I what?" Blake was confused, "how did you know..?"

"He's the heir to the Wulfechester family," Chris jumped in, "the last in a line of wolf faunus. In order to survive he's developed certain senses, including an acute nose for sniffing out faunus who like to hide their ears under a bow." Blake's anger and frustration grew but she also seemed a bit defeated.

"Blake," Ruby reached out for her teammate, "let's give them a chance. Joey saved my life last night, I think he's telling the truth." Ruby felt like she could trust them. Team FWCS was older than them. Surely if they were aligned with the White Fang Ozpin would have noticed by now.

"Ruby's right," Yang stood by her sister's judgment, "I mean she's probably right. If they worked for the White Fang why not just kill us last night when we were surrounded."

"If you'll excuse me," Joey growled, "I'm going to my workshop to calm down a bit. Maybe Blake'll be more willing to talk without me in the room." Joey walked out of the room angrily. Ron's sad look told Ruby something was off.

"Workshop," the idea caught Ruby's attention. She'd wanted to see the workshop since she first heard about it.

"Why don't you go with him Ruby?" Elodie said, "I remember you getting excited about seeing the workshop the other day." Her eyes had taken on that slight green color again but Ruby was too excited to notice. She also understood what Elodie meant. This could be a chance to bridge the gap forming between the two teams.

"Would you guys be alright here?" She asked her team.

"I guess," Yang seemed reluctant, "are you sure she should go with him, he seemed pretty pissed."

"I actually think Ruby sticking up for him was helping," Elodie pointed out, "he probably thinks it would make Blake genuinely more comfortable if he left."

"What's wrong Yang?" Ron snickered, "Afraid your little sister will get eaten by the big bad wolf." Chris and Elodie stifled a laugh and Yang followed suit. Their laughter broke through a little bit before they noticed Blake and Weiss' disdain for the joke.

"Ok I'll go with him," Ruby stood to follow Joey out of the room happily.

Ron calmed himself down, "Blake I'm sorry. Look we just want to share what each of us have on the White Fang. We're all on the same team here."

"Fine," Blake was sitting with her arms crossed, trying to calm down, "it all started in our first semester when Ruby first ran into a man named Torchwick." Blake went on to explain everything they had gone through since they started at Beacon, with her teammates chiming in from time to time.

"Joey," Ruby called out to him as she followed him down the hallway, "hey wait up." He was opening the door to his workshop when she caught his attention. The wolf faunus was still seething below the surface. How dare those girls accuse him of working with the White Fang? Ruby had stopped her approach and he realized his scowl had probably put her off. He relaxed, controlling himself now that he was out of the situation.

"They sent you after me?" He sighed as the door to his work shop opened.

"I think they mainly just sent me to.." Ruby trailed off as she saw the inside of his works shop. There were empty shell casings, weapon schematics, work benches, piles of gunpowder, and other various pieces of tech. Her excitement was easy to see and Joey stepped out of her way as she rushed in, looking over everything. His work room was one of the larger rooms in the house, losing out to the library in the basement. In the center was a long table where his rifle and shotgun were sitting, his gun case leaned up against it. He was still working on getting some of the soot and ash out of the room from the small explosion the other night.

"You a fan of guns?" He asked as he walked over to a laptop and closed it. Regardless if the girl was kind there were things on there he didn't want anyone seeing. There was a mantle above the laptop with a sub-machine gun mounted onto it. The weapon had a drum magazine and a wooden front grip as well as a wooden stock.

"Well weapons in general," she answered excitedly, "but yes. This is so cool! Ozpin just lets you live off campus like this?" After what happened with his team why wouldn't he? Joey thought to himself.

"We're kind of a special case," Joey explained, "we still live in a dorm on campus but this is our home away from home."

"What do you call that?" Ruby's attention turned to the SMG.

"This," Joey's thumb motioned to the weapon, "I call her Daisy. I actually haven't used her in a while."

"I couldn't tell," Ruby told him, "she looks spotless." In a flash Ruby grabbed Joey's work stool and was standing at eye level with the weapon. She was gawking at it, her finger almost touching it as she traced from the barrel to the wooden stock.

"What about yours?" Joey pointed to Ruby's scythe. She pulled the weapon out, extending it to its scythe form as she hopped down. Able to stop and actually admire the weapon Joey was impressed.

"This is Crescent Rose," She explained as Joey motioned for it, "I made it myself." Joey carefully took the weapon and cycled it to look through the bolt, the shell that was in the weapon flew out and he caught it. Ruby looked at him strangely, "what are you doing?"

"Just looking," Joey's smile was sly, "I think I'm in love." He wasn't exaggerating. He had been planning to forge a larger caliber weapon for weeks and this shell was going to be his inspiration. He pushed the bolt forward again and passed the weapon back to its owner. Her cheeks had a slight red flush to them as she took her weapon back. While the girl in front of him was cute he was more interested in the shell he'd taken. Sunflower was a reliable rifle for taking down small grimm and covering against human enemies but there were larger targets out there, including those new Paladins the Atlesian Military had stolen from them.

"So," this word dragged awkwardly from Ruby's mouth as she folded her weapon and placed it back to its resting place, "what's it like to grow up in a company that makes weapons?" The question was just as awkward as her word dragging but Joey knew she didn't mean anything by it.

"Take a walk with me" Joey asked her, "and I'll tell you all about it. I'm pretty certain they sent you to keep me from locking myself in here again."

"What about the Grimm in the forest?" She asked.

"What about 'em?" He smirked as he walked to a locker in the corner. He opened it and took out his grey frock coat and put it on. He reached back into the locker and found his hat, closing the locker after he put it on. As he walked out of the workshop he took Forget-me-not off of the table and placed it on a magnetic holder on his back, still carrying the round he had taken out of Crescent Rose. "You're a huntress from Beacon aren't you? What do I have to worry about?"

"Ok," Ruby was slightly reluctant but followed him out of the room and towards the back of the house. She noticed how quietly he had slipped by the dining room and followed suit so that she didn't alert her team that they were leaving.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"So you guys started during your first semester?" Ron asked Blake and her teammates, "and this Torchwick guy, you caught him?" Ron was impressed. In their year at Beacon Team RWBY had managed to put a real dent in the White Fang's plans while his team had only ever destroyed their equipment.

"Well we helped catch him," Yang explained, the blonde had pride in her voice and a smile on her face. "Do you remember that breach a few weeks ago?"

"We heard about that," Elodie explained, "but we were out on a mission ourselves so we weren't here for it."

"That's where we caught him," Blake told them.

"So why were you still sneaking around a White Fang warehouse?" Chris asked her bluntly. None of them answered and for a minute it was silent. Ron wondered what they would say. His team already knew Torchwick wasn't a major leader in the White Fang and these girls must have figured it out as well.

"We just had a hunch," Weiss told him. Chris shook his head in disappointment.

"We already established this," Ron looked directly at Blake, "we're all in this as a team. We need you to be honest. How did you know about that warehouse?"

"Fine," Blake sighed, "before I came to Beacon.. I was a member of the White Fang. That's how I knew where to attack them. But what about you, how did you know where to go?"

"Joey has a knack for shaking down White Fang members," Chris answered without hesitation. "The thing that bothers me though is that we've been trying to get information about that man with the sword last night for months but you seemed to already know about him."

"Wait a minute," Weiss stopped, "you called him Adam." Blake winced when she realized that Weiss had pieced something together. "You said your partner or mentor or whatever in the White Fang was named Adam!" Yang looked over to Weiss with a glance that screamed back off. Ron was impressed with the blonde. In the absence of their leader she could see that Yang took on a leadership role, much like Joey was his second in command.

"Yes that was him," Blake admitted, "yes I used to work with him and he is still a monster. He was willing to kill all of us in one strike. Even me." Blake looked down with her hands resting on each other. Elodie had reached out to her and looked at her softly. Ron knew if anyone could help Blake through this it was the rabbit.

"Blake," Elodie didn't break eye contact with Blake's bright yellow eyes, "like you said he's a monster. Whoever he was when he was your mentor isn't there anymore."

"I just," Blake seemed unsure, "he had this vision for the future and it changed him."

"We can stop him," Elodie reassured her, "faunus don't need to obtain equality through violence, there are other ways."

"You said Joey has a knack for shaking down the Whtie Fang," Yang changed the subject, "when did he start doing that?"

"I think it was sometime before he came to Beacon," Ron told her. Ron knew a lot about Joey but there were things he had never asked his teammate out of courtesy. "But he was so passionate about clearing his family's name that he dragged us right into it."

"What was that like?" Yang asked, "I mean when you met. Did you all have to go through the Emerald Forest?"

"Yea," Chris said, "Joey's landing strategy was hilarious. He broke his legs when he landed." Yang, Weiss, and Blake looked at him in amazement.

* * *

Joey and Ruby were walking through the forest, the orange leaves falling around them as they walked. "So how did you end up as the heir to your company anyway?" Ruby asked Joey, after 10 minutes of walking he hadn't answered her question.

"You're familiar with the White Fang obviously," Joey pointed out, "but there are also Anti-Faunus groups. My parents.." Joey paused for a second, "my parents were murdered by people from these groups when I was ten. They planted a dust bomb in their car and set it off while they were on their way home to me." The sudden blunt answer caught her off guard.

"Oh," Ruby sympathized with him, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.." The amount of regret she felt asking him had reached a new level of embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it," Joey didn't seem sad, "honestly they left me a good life, they were good people and they raised me right, even if I am a bit obsessed with building weapons."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Ruby told him. She had built her scythe under the guidance of her uncle and her father taught at Signal. She was destined to be a huntress, it was basically in her blood. "So did you build your pistols?"

"No my mom built these," Joey lifted his coat and patted the weapons, "my rifle's called Sunflower and my pop built that." There was a large stump that they were approaching and Joey sat down at the edge of it. "He built it after he met mom, I remember he told me she inspired it." Ruby sat on the stump as well. It wasn't the most comfortable seat but that didn't really matter. She was focused on the story of how Joey's parents met. His father had been a gunsmith in the company right before his mother took over as the CEO. They'd fallen in love over a mutual passion for making weapons and they spent their days inventing and changing the direction Wulfechester arms was headed. Joey reached into his pocket and pulled out the bullet he had taken from Crescent Rose.

"That's so romantic," Ruby commented as she looked over to the person she was sharing the stump with.

"Yea," Joey smiled at her as he rolled the round with his index finger and his thumb, "I can understand the feeling my pop had. Right now I'm feeling pretty inspired. Maybe sending you after me is gonna end with me locked up in my workshop." Ruby's eyes had come up to meet his as she blushed a little. The heat in her cheeks made her realize it was probably noticeable and the way Joey looked back at her confirmed it.

"Anyways!" Ruby seemed to avoid his eyes at that moment, "how did you end up going after the White Fang?"

"Well six years ago, when the White Fang turned to violence rather than protests," Joey began to explain. He had trailed off slightly when a rustle from a bush behind him caught his attention. He turned, dropping the bullet as he reached for one of his pistols. Before he or Ruby could say another word a dark figure burst through the bushes. It was a large beowulf that lunged at Joey and sunk its teeth into his right arm. There was a wet squishing sound as its teeth broke the skin and spewed blood outwards. Ruby's eyes widened as she watched the two struggle. The beowulf attempted to tear Joey's arm away but Joey pulled back, bringing his left hand with a snapdragon to its chin. Joey winced as the beast ground its teeth into his arm. He pulled the trigger once and the creature released his arm. Once free, his right hand came down and fanned the hammer of his pistol which left the beast's head little more than pulp.

"Joey your aura!" Ruby exclaimed, "Are you ok? Do you need a doctor?" The large gash in his arm looked painful, blood still dripping from the wound. Ruby was wondering why his aura hadn't protected him but her first concern was his actual health.

"Don't worry about it," Joey grunted as he held up his arm, the wound was quickly healing. Before long all that was left behind was the torn piece of his jacket and blood stains. "My clothes might not look it, but I'm fine."

"How did you do that?" Ruby's Scythe had already been deployed and she was ready to fight off anymore Grimm that may have appeared. Joey quickly reloaded the revolver with a moon clip and picked up the shell he had been looking at. Joey placed the round back into his jacket as he and Ruby slowly walked back toward the house. "Is that your semblance? You heal?"

"Yea," Joey had pulled his second revolver out and cocked back the hammer as his barrel found the edge of the tree line, "but at a cost. See my aura protects me from most slashing attacks but it's a little thinner than most, bullets and hard stab wounds seem to go right through. On the bright side I regenerate pretty quickly." Ruby was following him with her rifle aimed back toward the stump they had been sitting on. She could see some of the bushes around them rustling. Grimm were there but they hadn't jumped at them yet.

"Does it hurt?" Ruby asked, "I mean like after it heals does it... oh nevermind." Between her focus on the grimm and her terrible track record with questions today she was getting the feeling that she had won the award for most socially awkward girl for the second semester in a row.

"Yea it hurts," Joey laughed, "I've gotten used to it.. sort of, but you never really get used to feeling your nerves torn apart." Ruby felt stupid for asking him. She'd only just met him but she was concerned. He had saved her life the night before and now here he was, watching her back as countless Grimm could be around them.

"You said there was a cost," Ruby moved her scope towards the sound of another rustling bush. Several beowulves emerged from the brush on Ruby's side but Joey hadn't turned to face them. Ruby snapped a look towards him and saw that he was facing down a similar situation.

"I'd love to tell you all about it," Joey told her as his pistols came up to meet the creatures in front of him. "But I don't think these things came to us for a story."

"Bet I kill more than you," Ruby smirked. Talking may not have been her strong suit but she had a knack for killing grimm. If she could just start doing that she'd be able to save herself from any more potential embarrassments. The scope of her rifle found its first target as the two of them backed up into each other. Ruby could feel their height difference.

"Is that a challenge Ruby Rose?" The wolf sounded like he was enjoying himself so maybe he just wanted to get down to killing these things too.

"Perhaps," she giggled. The two of them fired into the crowd as the Grimm advanced toward them. The first Grimm to get close to them came as Joey's right gun went dry. He quickly placed his boot on the beast's forearm, stepping up and putting the last round from his left weapon into its head. Ruby spun with her scythe as Joey became airborne, cutting the beowulf in half. His pistols found their holsters as he drew the shotgun on his back holder. Joey flipped the lever as the barrel found its way aiming down at the crowd. He was vertical now, falling back to the ground as he pulled the trigger. The shotgun spray flew from the barrel of the weapon and caught a beowulf behind Ruby in the head. As the pellets penetrated its head they splattered the creatures brains along the grass. She turned and saw more so she fired at them, propelling herself away from the crowd. Joey was not as lucky, landing with a roll in the center of the creatures.

"Don't go leaving me behind now," he called to her as he fired into more of the beasts with one shell. Ruby placed a shot into a beowulf that was directly behind Joey. His eyes told her that he felt the pressure of the shot flying by his face but his smirk said he didn't care. He sprinted towards Ruby, firing around himself at the Grimm on either side of him.

"Hey I don't think that's very fair," Ruby pointed out as she reloaded Crescent Rose. "Instead of reloading you just switch weapons!" Joey had made his way back to the huntress.

"I thought you were supposed to be fast," Joey said between shots, "why don't we move things along?" His weapon fell forward on the lever and the blade slid down so that it fell over the barrel. After it rolled down the opening of the barrel the blade telescoped out in both directions, the back end of it connecting to the wooden grip under the barrel. Ruby aimed the scythe back, pulling the trigger to launch herself at the crowd. Joey's eyes stayed on her as she cut a swath through the monsters.

"That's more like it," Joey admired the attack as his weapon finished its transformation. He got a running start toward the creatures as the breach to his weapon opened. He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out three shotgun shells, each of them had a lightening mark on them. The first grimm of this new wave reached him as he slammed the breach shut. His shotgun's blade lit up with a spark of electricity as he carved through the beowulf. Another one took its place but found Joey's blade rammed though its chest. The creature was still alive but flew back into some of its kin as Joey pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The recoil sent his weapon flying away and helped in removing the blade from the freshly dispatched monster. The second beowulf it had landed on was also struck by the lightning bolt that had shot forward from the weapon. The smell of burnt flesh was left behind by the falling corpses as Joey looked back to Ruby. Without looking he swiped his blade back, decapitating another foe.

"Guess you're not too slow yourself," Ruby was jumping back and forth between the creatures as their limbs were being torn from their bodies, shells from her weapon raining from wherever she stopped to fire. Joey unholstered one of his Snapdragons and drove his sword into a smaller beowulf, forcing it to the ground as it was impaled. It squirmed as he reloaded the pistol and finished it with a shot to the head.

"You think that's fast," the wolf grinned as a grimm behind him was met with the barrel of his revolver being pressed against the roof of its mouth, "you ain't seen nothing yet."

* * *

Joey was 15 years-old and here he was in a White Fang warehouse carrying enough ammunition to fight a small war. The White Fang would never have known. He was carrying his Snapdragons on his waist belt and Daisy on a one point sling under his coat, he had temporarily replaced her hardwood stock with a folding wire frame. Just the thought of it made him angry. The wire stock looked horrible on his hand built subgun. Walking in with them was the easy part. The White Fang was having a recruiting rally that night and he had blended in with the crowd.

"Looking to really stick it to those humans, eh?" He recalled the doorman asking. He had just smiled. He'd thought about gunning the whole group down. Their use of his family's weapons had killed his parents. Sure two humans had planted the bombs but if The White Fang hadn't become so violent they wouldn't have died in vain.

"Damn straight," he lied. It was all a lie really. He was at the recruiting session in order to find out if the White Fang really had their hands on his company's gear. He'd heard that the White Fang were using equipment that came from his company and the rumors were true. "Dammit," Joey cursed as he looked over the crates in front of him. He was wearing a brown duster with front plating but no shoulder pads. His armor was much less pronounced than it would be eventually. He was also wearing a Grimm Mask over his eyes. A noise came from behind him as he inspected the gear.

"Who do we have here?" A large faunus wearing White Fang attire with a hood had snuck up behind him. He was carrying a large claymore and had a few other members with him. Joey took Daisy from its position on his side, unfolded the stock and aimed at the crowd. "Did you get separated from the initiate group?"

"Where'd y'all get these weapons?" Joey demanded to know. The larger member snickered and Joey replied by firing several shots into the legs of a few of the by standing White Fang. The bullets had broken straight through their auras and they fell. Just like he had designed them.

"Who sent you?" The leader asked. Joey fired at him this time but the faunus was fast. He swatted the spray of bullets away with his sword and flew forward with a powerful thrust. Before he could assess what had happened Joey was pinned against one of the crates. There was a powerful, throbbing in his chest. He looked down and the pain grew worse.

"Oh god!" Joey screamed as he looked down. He had dropped Daisy and saw the blade stuck through his chest. Between the deep pressure in his chest and the urge to feint at the pain Joey remembered his pistols. That's when he noticed the leader's wide open mouth.

"Y-y-y-ou," the faunus stuttered as he backed away from Joey, "you should be dead. That blade's in your heart."

"Get it out," Joey was beginning to panic and the faunus reached for the hilt of the blade. " _If he gets that blade out I'll definitely die, between this pain... and the blackness I won't be able to..."_ He didn't have time to think. The faunus had found the hilt of his sword and began to pull. Joey's right hand fell onto his pistol and drew it. Joey pulled the trigger on instinct and caught the man in the wrist. The blade had been pulled out of the crate but not all the way out of Joey. Blood was dripping out of the wound and a large blood stain had been left behind on the crate. Joey's instincts were still in control as he pulled the hammer back again and placed another shot into the leader's chest. He still had a slight grip on the sword and when the bullet flung his arm back the sword went with it. "God Dammit!" Joey screamed in pain again.

"What the hell are you?" The leader's fear was obvious but he tried to swing his sword again. Free of the blade in his chest Joey's free hand found the hammer of his revolver and he fanned the last four shots into his opponent. The first two shots broke the faunus' aura, piercing his lung and heart. The third nicked an artery in his neck and the final one tore through his mask and exited the back of his skull. The man lying dead in front of him didn't register for Joey. He reached down to check the hole in his chest but found nothing but his own skin, bloody but no wound. He had noticed that his ribcage was more pronounced when he put his hand through the hole in his armor. Suddenly nothing else mattered but a powerful hunger. He couldn't see the dead body or the blood, he was hungry. Food, he needed food. He looked over to a downed White Fang member that was crawling toward Daisy.

"Are you serious?" Joey asked himself as he retrieved his sub machine gun and aimed it down at the man. Before he could pull the trigger his stomach let out a powerful groan. Joey paused and looked down. "Food.. do you have any?"

"What?" The grunt was shaking in fear.

"Food.." Joey repeated weakly.

"F-f-f-What?" The grunt was laying on his back now, looking up at the weapon in his face. Joey growled as his frustration built.

"Food!" Joey screamed "Food, mother fucker, do you have any?" The faunus looked like he was going to speak but Joey didn't let him. Joey's language was much more fowl when at this point in his life and the pain and hunger weren't helping. "Say what one more goddamn time!" The grunt didn't speak but reached into his pocket and produced a small half eaten candy bar. Joey snatched it and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing loudly before he swallowed. "More... need more.." Joey walked off toward the exit as more White Fang entered the room. His sudden hunger was clouding everything. With one hand he raised his weapon and fired a hail at the door they were coming through. None of them advanced further until he had already left the room. Once he was gone they tried chasing after him, only to be stopped by the exploding crates marked 'Wulfechester Arms.'

* * *

"Really?" Ruby was amazed, "you took a sword through the heart?" Joey nodded. They were sitting back on the stump. Their battle had led them back to the spot and instead of letting the grimm ruin their walk they just went back. Many of the grimm bodies were still disintegrating around them. The grass of the forest had been heavily stained with the blood of the creatures they had slain. "And shooting the guy in the head? Just one bullet?"

"That I'm not too proud of," Joey looked down to the floor, "see I'd never killed someone before.. and I haven't killed anyone since. Mostly aura tends to protect people from that kind of stuff but I.. I was a kid."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, feeling dumb again. "I mean you were 15 but what do you mean a kid?"

"I had designed something," Joey told her, "something I vowed to never let hit the production lines at my company. It's an aura piercing shell, that night was the test run. It worked, it worked well honestly. I just didn't know what that meant until later. My godfather worked to get them banned after the police discovered someone had used them. He never told the police it was me."

"Well what did you do?" She was looking right at him, "Not with the killing but the hunger." She wanted to move the conversation away from killing. They could kill Grimm all they wanted but obviously something about killing people didn't sit well with Joey and it made sense. Ruby hadn't actively killed anybody. During the Breach the train crash killed plenty of White Fang but that was their own fault.

"Oh that?" Joey was glad for the subject change, "I found the closest diner and I think I ordered everything on the menu. Even paid the staff double to keep their mouths shut about me being there. After my meal though, that's when the realization kicked in. Killing wasn't the hard part, it was guilt I felt. That left too though. I think getting aura piercers banned helped, we made sure no one would ever have the chance to do what I had done."

"Wait you didn't have a problem killing?" Ruby was confused. Joey didn't seem proud of killing yet he didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"No I don't," Joey told her, "but Elodie and Chris keep me in check. I know everyone deserves life but some of these people just squander it. Killing is behind me though, unless it involves Grimm. Hope you don't think any less of me for it."

"Nope," Her answer was simple as she looked over to him, scooting closer to him on the stump. He had pulled the shell out again and was examining it in his left hand, his weight balanced on his right hand. She hadn't noticed how close they'd become and the tips of her fingers accidently landed on his.

"I think I got it," Joey said as though he'd realized something. Ruby was thankful he hadn't taken his eyes off of the bullet because accidently touching his hand had turned her cheeks a shade of red she didn't exactly want him to see.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Are those gunshots?" Yang asked. The group had moved from the dining room table to the living room. The couches were much more comfortable, although a little small. Yang's legs were resting over Blake's, while Weiss was sitting at the end of the couch in a straight up position.

"Yea," Ron answered her, he had taken a chair from the dining room with him and was sitting on it backwards so that he could rest his chin on the back of the chair. "Just because the house is nice doesn't mean the grimm just stay away. I'd imagine that Joey and Ruby must have gone out into the woods."

"Shouldn't we help them?" Weiss stood up but Chris put a hand out to the heiress.

"Don't be so hasty ," Chris was using that proper tone with her name again and Yang had to stifle a giggle. "I'm sure your leader is more than capable of defending herself from a few monsters." Weiss slowly sat back down, scowling at him.

"You said Joey's landing strategy was breaking his bones," Yang looked at Chris, "were you serious? He didn't really get hurt on the landing did he?"

"Oh no," Elodie chimed in, "Chris was being totally serious. When he found Joey he was in pretty bad shape." Yang was having a hard time imagining the gunslinger injured, he hadn't even been hit during his duel with Cardin.

"Can I tell this story?" Ron asked her, "I always love telling people about our adventures in the Emerald forest." Ron's excitement was noticeable as he looked to his teammate.

* * *

Ron looked around at the other students on the cliff side. Ozpin had already explained their challenge. Get to the forest temple and retrieve the artifacts. Destroy anything that gets in his way. With his rifle that shouldn't be too hard. Ozpin had two other professors with him. One Ron had recognized as Glynda Goodwitch who had greeted them via the PA system on the airships. Ron didn't recognize the other professor though. He was a tall man with a short silver hair. It was slicked back and kept closer to his head than Ron's styled back hair. The young huntsmen in training wondered if this professor was related to Ozpin. He was wearing a long purple coat with black vest. Instead of a tie he was wearing an amulet with a bright red stone. His slacks matched the purple coat and just underneath the coat Ron could make out some kind of chains. This professor also had a large broadsword with an ornate hand guard and skulls on the pommel. Ron's focus turned back to the students around him. _"Please let Elodie be the first person I find,"_ He thought as he prepared for launch. He saw her at the end of the platforms, her bow had an arrow already notched. Her hair was tied back into a short, tight ponytail and she was wearing her black jumpsuit. This was before the armor plating and all she had was the archery bracers on her hands. Her quiver was also more pronounced, with full arrows rather than the collapsible ones that she would eventually adopt. He had his rifle in his hands and was watching as the other students before him were launched. A larger student was on his left, wearing a brown men's kimono. Chris was younger, with shorter hair back then. He was wearing the red gloves but underneath his fists were bare. They hadn't met each other yet but in terms of teams Ron had a feeling that Chris would make a powerful teammate. Chris was launched first, with Ron following directly after him. "Woohoo!" Ron called as he flew away, earning a strange look from Goodwitch. As he fell he saw Chris' hands come back to his sides. He shot them forward and a gust of powerful wind flew forth from them, slowing his decent to the ground. Ron had suddenly realized that his only hope for a safe landing would be his semblance. He took one last glance back towards Elodie who was the last off the cliff.

* * *

Elodie knew the platform was about to trigger when she made eye contact with Ozpin. She stepped off of the platform as it launched without her. "Ms. Snow what do you think you're doing?" Glynda asked irritated.

"I don't like flying," Elodie giggled as she fired an arrow down toward the forest. There was a long cable attached to the arrow as it flew and attached into a tree below. At the end of the cable was a second arrow with a grappling claw at the tip. She fired this second arrow back into a tree behind her. She had placed the first arrow on a trajectory directly under Ron. Once both arrows were attached they created a zipline down into the Emerald Forest, "plus, I find this strategy much cleaner than just launching into a combat zone."

"Hmm," Ozpin seemed interested in the rabbit's technique. Elodie placed her bow over the zipline and rode it down into the forest.

"I like her already," the Professor Lavender smirked as he looked to his colleagues.

"You like anybody with a little rebellion in their spirit," Goodwitch told him.

"And a good head on their shoulders," he said under his breath. Lavender was looking for first year students he could get to join him in anthropological studies during their first mission. Sure Oobleck would probably be doing something similar and Port would be taking his pick of the real hardcore grimm slayers but Laveneder was looking for something special. He was looking for students who would understand more than how to kill grimm or how the world worked before. He wanted students who could look at how mankind has fought the grimm for so long and could apply that to today's approaches. Elodie Snow had just proved to him she was on his list for a reason. It took study and preparation to have known how to handle the launch pad in advance and he was certain she didn't just carry tether arrows with her everywhere. Whether Goodwitch could appreciate what he was doing here didn't matter because another one of his prospects was about to get a chance to prove themselves as well.

* * *

 _"Alright back to landing,"_ Ron turned to focus, the ground was approaching fast and his first thought was to put his hand out. His aura shifted, leaving his immediate body to form a jade-green orb around him. The orb slammed into the ground, rolling roughly through the forest as he got his bearings from the safety of his aura. He could see the tree that Elodie's zipline was attached to. " _This couldn't have gone better."_ He snickered, until he realized he wasn't stopping quick enough. Elodie was approaching the end of the zipline but he was going to get there first. He tried to recall his aura but at the last second it slammed into the tree before returning to him. The tree splintered and cracked, causing the zipline to fall, Elodie following it.

"Ron what did you do?" She screamed as she fell.

"Shit shit shit," Ron yelled as his arms and legs pumped. He was sprinting toward the rabbit. He put his hands out to project his aura towards her. He closed his eyes to focus on her and as she approached the ground he didn't hear the sound of her hit. He opened his eyes and saw that she was bouncing a top the green disk his aura had created. "Sorry El," the boy apologized as the aura disappeared. His breathing was heavy as he approached her. Their eyes met to signify that they'd be partners. That's when he saw her eyes were not the red color he was expecting but rather a happy color of orange and yellow. Realizing that she wasn't angry with him he laughed, "guess I really dropped the ball on that one." Elodie's eyes shot back toward their brown color and dully looked at him. He knew his puns were atrocious but after 5 years of school together he felt that she wouldn't just abandon him now. "Glad our plan worked El."

"Well who else is gonna put up with you?" She laughed as she walked up and punched his arm. She'd been the whole reason he made it into Beacon. When they met back at Signal he was just a mediocre student with an unoriginal weapon. He'd built the weapon based an old rifle his father took up during the Faunus Rights revolution. His weapon hadn't changed but at least her study habits helped him get in. It was based on a WA-47 that had belonged to the only person his father had ever killed. A child soldier had tried to use it to kill his father on his first deployment. Ron's dad had never been proud of the story but he was always proud to carry that kid's memory with him. Right or wrong that kid was fighting for something and his dad thought that was a waste. He made a promise never to kill again. It hadn't rubbed off on his unit though so after a two year tour with only one confirmed kill they sent his dad home with an honorable discharge. Ron loved his dad's war stories and they inspired his weapon choice. No fancy melee form, just good old reliable Wulfechester engineering.

"Not many," He laughed back as they surveyed the area around them. "Let's get moving, you have another friend here in the forest right?"

"Yea," Elodie nodded, "he's the guy responsible for my scholarship so I'd kind of like to see if we could all get teamed up." Ron's interest was piqued as he realized just who she was talking about.

* * *

Chris landed on the forest floor softly, the wind from his gloves had made the landing easy. He quickly pulled a notebook and a pen from his kimono. "Heavenly Fist landing test was a success," he said as he wrote it down. "Steve is gonna love these results." Chris looked down at his gloves, the circle in the center of his gloves had a teal-green color to them. He looked above him to see a student in a duster flying over his head. "Possible teammate also located, hopefully he doesn't mind my constant experiments." Chris was kind of excited to meet new people. No one here knew him or who he was. He could socialize without fear finally and so he set out forward to track the falling student. After a few minutes he found a clearing with a large tree in the center. At the base of the tree was the student with the duster. His legs were contorted in unnatural ways, obviously broken. He had also been carrying a large submachine gun but he must have landed on it because the barrel had impaled his left shoulder. There was also a lever action rifle with a scope on his back. Chris' first response was to cringe. Up until this point he'd spent most of his life with his caretaker, Steve. He'd been homeschooled and wasn't too familiar with other kingdoms on a personal level. "Oh god, my family sent me to a school where they kill the students."

"No," the student coughed up blood with a nasty crackling sound. Chris jumped back, "not dead, not yet anyway."

"What the hell?" Chris felt overwhelmed as the student turned to him. Their eyes met, "oh! You looked at me, we're partners now! Am I supposed to carry you or something?"

"No no," Joey's legs snapped again and Chris twitched. He watched as Joey's bones reformed to their natural spots. "But you could grab the stock of this gun, partner." Chris froze for a second, "come on big guy I'm serious." Chris moved forward, the barrel had tucked itself between his chest and shoulder. As Chris grabbed the full wood stock there was a wet squishing sound from the wound, he gave Joey a concerned look and was met with a confirming nod. He pulled back and the barrel came out along with a slight spray of blood and a mighty yell from Joey. Chris managed to dodge the spray but noticed that the weapon itself was still covered in red. Joey's head rocked from side to side as the pain subsided and the wound in his arm quickly closed.

"How did you do that?" Chris was in shock at what he just witnessed.

"Weak aura, I heal quickly, makes me really hungry," Joey was blunt as he stood and put a hand out for his weapon. Chris passed it back as Joey inspected it, "No flesh stuck in the bolt so Daisy here is good to go. You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat on ya.. would ya?"

"Umm," Chris was a little reluctant, "I actually do but well, I guess you can just try it." Chris reached into his kimono again and pulled out a small brown bar that had been wrapped in thin plastic.

"You don't mind partin' with it?" Joey asked. Chris offered it to the young wolf and Joey snatched it. He tore at the wrapper after shouldering his bloody weapon. He bit the bar in half and coughed. "Oh god."

"I wanted to warn you," Chris put his hands out, "it's mostly minerals and vitamins."

"It tastes like dirt," Joey coughed again as he ate the rest.

"Then why eat the rest?" Chris yelled. "I don't exactly carry a lot of those. They're my favorite snack! I tend to get really hungry and they can feed me for about 10 hours." He said this last part a little more calmly, with an almost timid tone.

"I ate it because," Joey paused as he looked at the plastic. There was a spec of energy bar left. He snatched it up into his mouth and swallowed it. "Because it helped. I mean it really helped. Last time I got myself 'killed' I had to eat most of a diner to get rid of the hunger, but this! This is great!"

"I make them myself," Chris told him. " _I found a friend, oh my god I'm not going to actually be a total loner here."_ Chris' thoughts made him smile at his new partner. "I'm Chris by the way, Chris Russet." His hand extended to the faunus.

"No shit," Joey recognized the name and shook his hand, "as in the dust researchers that work for the SDC?"

"Yea," Chris' smile faded as he realized that Joey knew who his family was.

"Joey Wulfechester," Joey introduced himself grabbing Chris' hand firmly, "I had heard that the Russet's son would be in my class but I had no idea you'd be a viable partner option."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris was confused.

"I mean I figured you'd have some plan to work with the other rich kids or something," Joey told him.

"But you're Joey Wulfechester," Chris pointed out, "are you not one of the rich kids?" Joey saw his point.

"I have an idea," Joey laughed, "let's just keep the whole being rich thing to ourselves eh?" Chris nodded and Joey smirked, "Just Chris and Joey. No last names to define who we are, at least not with each other."

"Wait a minute," Chris stopped him, "doesn't your company supply.."

"See this is why I don't want the whole defined by name thing going on," Joey cut him off, "I own the company and my godfather runs it. But as far as the two of us know Wulfechester Arms DOES NOT supply terrorists."

"Alright," Chris' trust came as an obvious surprise to Joey.

"Alright?" Joey looked at him in disbelief, "you know the rumors and you're willing to just trust me?"

"We're partners now right?" Chris told him, "Ozpin said it himself, we're stuck with each other for next four years. That means there's no point in getting hung up on trivial things like that. Right now we need to focus on getting to the relics at the forest temple." Joey nodded.

"Looks like I hit the jackpot today," Joey unshouldered his weapon and cycled a shell to double check that none of his muscle tissue got jammed in the slide, "now let's see how far my luck takes me."

"Us," Chris corrected him as he walked alongside his new partner, "because I don't have very much of it."

"Guess I'll have to teach you a thing or two about making your own then," Joey chuckled as he sighted his weapon and proceeded forward through the forest.

* * *

"So what's he like?" Ron asked Elodie as the two walked in the direction they hoped the forest temple was in. His assault rifle was sighted up toward the tree line. The weapon had none of the attachments it would eventually gain. For now it was bare iron sights with a wooden grip and stock. The metal parts of it were dark green.

"You'll see when you meet him," Elodie told her partner, her bow was at her side. "You know you can put _Viridi Lanius_ down. Any grimm show up and I'm bound to hear them before they get to us."

"Yea you're right," Ron lowered his weapon as he turned to her, "guess all that time we spent training has me on edge."

"Well calm down," She told him as she put a hand on his weapon to lower it the rest of the way.

"I just want you to know you didn't waste your time with all that extra work you did," Ron told her, "you carried me all the way through Signal and I want you to know that…" He was cut off by a snapping branch. He turned to find a large Ursa in front of him. It had large white spines coming out of its back. "You lied didn't you?"

"Guess you'd have been better off with the bear truth," She giggled as they backed off.

"Leave the puns to me El," He aimed his weapon at the beast as they both prepared to engage. He fired two shots off into the monster's chest as it swiped him away. His aura absorbed the hit but that didn't matter. The beast was charging his partner. Elodie was quick on her feet, jumping backwards she drew back her bow with an arrow notched into it. She let the arrow fly towards the creature but it swatted the projectile away. She realized the beast was going to be on top of her quickly and so she broke her bow down into the two short swords. She side stepped a slash and rolled off to the side. As she came back to a standing position she felt a presence behind her. She glanced back and realized that two more Ursai had gotten behind her. These ones were less battle-hardened than the first but still formidable.

"Crap," Elodie sighed as one of the beasts tackled her. It bit down and clamped around one of her blades.

"Get off her!" Ron rammed his shoulder into the beast, his aura manifesting as barrier, and it let go. Before it got up he put five quick shots into the side of its neck and head. The larger, older Ursa roared at them and charged.

"So, Ron, what do we do when the creature we're fighting is too strong?" Elodie asked Ron in a test like manner.

"Run them into Mr. Branwen?" Ron pointed out as he helped her up and they both began to run. "Or in this case, the other students!" Ron and Elodie were sprinting now, her weapon reverting to its ranged form as their arms and legs pumped for more speed.

"Glad to see I taught you something!" Elodie screamed as she continued running.

* * *

"This looks like a forest temple," Chris told Joey as they approached the stone structure.

"Are you sure?" Joey asked sarcastically, "Weren't you sheltered as a child or something?" Joey had picked up on some of the aspects of Chris' life during their walk through the forest. They'd encountered some minor Grimm but Joey had dispatched them with Daisy easy enough.

"Well there's also those pedestal thingies over there," Chris pointed out.

"Oh well you could be right then," Joey walked up to the pedestals. He looked at the relics and realized they were playing cards. "Well the Ace of Spades is gone so I'm thinking we take the King." Before he could get to it Chris walked up to the Ace of Diamonds and picked it up.

"But diamonds are like dust," Chris said holding the card up to Joey, "I like dust."

"Ok then," Joey smiled, "Diamond dust it is. Well that's that, guess we should get back to the cliffs."

"Not yet," Chris said, "something's coming." Chris was pointing to the tree line and Joey could hear footfalls through the forest. Chris' hands assumed a fighting stance as Joey's weapon came up to meet the tree line.

"I hear it too," Joey was waiting to see who or what the footsteps were coming from. Suddenly Elodie and Ron burst from the trees, screaming and running toward them. "Elodie?"

"Joey! Shoot it! Kill it!" Elodie screamed at her fellow faunus. Joey dropped Daisy on its sling and pulled Sunflower off of his back, sighting the scope on the creature following her. They were being followed by a weak looking Ursa and that confused Joey. Elodie was usually a top class fighter, her acrobatic skills could usually get her out of anything. Before Joey could fire Chris stepped forward.

"Let me get this one," Chris told him as he tightened his gloves. The two students ran on either side of Chris who had crouched slightly. The Ursa pounced toward the four students and Chris responded with a jump of his own. As he became airborne his right fist connected in a powerful uppercut as his left fist produced a greenish-teal glow along with a powerful gust of wind to propel him upwards. As the Ursa came off of his knuckles it fell to the floor but he was still travelling upwards. Both of his gloves switched from the teal glow to an orange flame, he brought his hands to the side of his body and placed them parallel to each other. The flames consolidated into a powerful fireball as he thrust his hands forward.

"My luck just isn't running out today," Joey commented as his partner launched the flames at the downed Ursa. It was quickly burnt to a crisp in front of the three students. Chris landed a distance away from it and began to walk back toward them. "First I get to partner up with a guy who punches bears, and then I find you Elodie."

"I know you Joey," Elodie smirked as she nudged the wolf, "you planned to be here just when I'd get here."

"Is that what you meant by making your own luck?" Chris asked Joey. Joey laughed at his partner's question as Elodie made her way to the cards.

"Oh! They left behind the Ace of Hearts!" Elodie held up the playing card as her eyes turned to a shade of purple.

"Alright," Ron said, "we all have our relics so let's get back to the cliffs before Joey's luck runs out."

"Who made you leader?" Joey asked him with an irritated attitude.

"I did when I decided I wanted to get home safe tonight," Ron told him as he pointed out at the tree line, "we weren't running from that small Ursa. There was a larger one and it's still out there somewhere… although as self-proclaimed leader I have one question for you."

"Yea and what's that?" Joey asked him, stepping closer to him.

"How do we get back to the cliffs?" Ron asked him, his stern face suddenly becoming more accepting to suggestion.

"By the way Joey," Elodie said walking back up to the group, "This is Ron Feldgaunt, the student I've been tutoring since your company paid for me to start combat school." Joey couldn't take it anymore, he burst out laughing and Chris joined him.

"Are you kidding me?" Joey laughed harder, Ron had begun laughing too. "Come on Ron, we want to be headed that way." Joey pointed Ron in the right direction but let him lead. Elodie had written about how hard this student had been working and Joey wanted to give him a chance. Ron's progress was important to Elodie and she was important to Joey. Plus, having Ron go in front meant Joey could put himself at risk less which meant a smaller dinner bill at the end of the day. "Also if you want to get us all out alive, that means you're taking point."

"Fine by me," Ron lead the way as his aura began to glow a dark green around his body. The four of students moved forward toward the forest with the large Ursa in it, all of their weapons poised for an attack.

* * *

"And we made it back to the cliffs no problem," Chris finished Ron's story.

"What about the giant Ursa?" Yang had become enthralled with Ron's explanation of team Fuchsia's formation meeting.

"That is a separate story altogether," Ron looked at the blonde and smirked, "maybe I'll tell you some other time, although with as interested as you seem I don't think you'll be able to BEAR it."

"Ronald if you don't tell me I swear I will…" Yang was cut off by the sound of two people entering the room. It was Joey and Ruby, both looking disheveled, sweaty and Joey's arm was covered in blood. Seeing her sister that way worried Yang but Joey looked worse.

"Oh what were you two up to?" Chris asked in a jokingly suggestive manner.

"Beowulves," Joey told him, "but Ruby dealt with them no problem." Ruby looked down shyly when he said this.

"Give yourself some credit Joey," Ruby told him, "you did pretty well yourself, then again I still ended up winning." Joey's teammates looked at him confused.

"No way," Ron said, "Joey lost at something?"

"Have Steve note that they're getting closer," Joey told Chris, ignoring the flush in his cheeks and the comment his leader had just made.

"I'm on it boss," A metallic voice came from behind Joey. Team RWBY gasped at what they saw. It was a robot, but its outer shell was made entirely of oak wood. The machine's body was cylindrical, as though a log had been given limbs.

"Thanks Steve," Chris said nonchalantly.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"What the hell is that?" Yang asked as she shot up from her spot on the couch, pointing at the wooden robot. She'd seen Atlesian robots up close before but this was completely different. The body was all wooden, there were some visible metal parts on the limb joints but the majority of the machine was wood.

"That's Steve," Elodie smiled as the robot turned to walk away. The machine shifted back as though it had remembered something.

"I almost forgot," Steve's robotic voice came through the doorway, "you still have scheduled training today." Steve turned again now, shuffling off into the house as the two teams looked at each other.

"If you guys have training to do we can leave," Blake said, "we probably have work that needs to get done too."

"But I want to know about the Ursa!" Yang was at Ron's throat practically. She was a sucker for adventure stories and that large Ursa he'd been telling her about sounded like a good one.

"Ya'll don't have to leave," Joey pointed out. "We always enjoy having new sparing partners round here."

"Not like we have any," Ron sighed then looked to Yang, " Maybe I can tell you about that Ursa."

"Joey," Ruby interrupted, "after what we just did back there shouldn't you be resting?"

"Oh no," Yang stood up remembering the sounds of fighting she'd heard outside, "we heard those gunshots. I thought you might be in trouble but Ron here told me you'd be fine."

"Yang I am," Ruby pointed out, "Joey's the one that got hurt."

"Yea well," Yang pointed at Joey, "I still want to spar against him. He shouldn't of had my little sister out in that forest in the first place." She knew there was no point in being defensive but she needed an excuse to stay for the Ursa story and sparing against Joey was as good as any. Plus with the White Fang moving out of Vale she could focus more on the tournament. Practicing with more experienced students could only increase her chances of winning.

"Blondie are you challenging me?" Joey smirked. His hands reached towards his Snapdragons.

"Joey you don't want to fight my sister," Ruby tried to get between them, "Yang you don't have to do this."

"It's just a friendly duel," Joey looked at the shorter girl, "right Blondie?"

"Right," She said as her gauntlets engaged. His nickname for her was starting to get annoying but that was probably just the fight building up in her.

"This ought to be good," Ron chuckled. Joey motioned for Yang to follow him and the group headed out toward the back of the house.

* * *

The group had taken to sitting on the back porch of the house. There was a deck with a canopy for shade. They had glass tables with chairs for visitors or just a place to sit outside when they wanted fresh air. Joey and Yang were a ways away from the porch with Steve standing between them.

"I'll be monitoring auras and acting as a referee for this sparing contest. There is no ring out condition so the fight goes until your auras are depleted or one of you forfeits! Understood?" Steve explained, "Yang ready?"

"Don't worry Ruby," Yang's voice had a teasing tone to it as she nodded to the robot. "I'll try not to break his hands."

"No!" Ruby called out, "He needs those to…" Ruby realized she was practically rooting against her sister, "just don't hurt him too bad sis!" Turning away from the others Ruby said something under her breathe along the lines of "please don't kill him."

"Mr. Wulfechester are you ready?" Steve asked the other combatant.

"Say when," Joey's right index finger was tapping the left Snapdragon as he stood in a drawing stance.

"Fight!" Steve yelled as he backed out of the way. Yang dashed forward with a straight punch. Joey's hands shifted, quickly drawing his two pistols as he batted the punch away with a pistol whip. Yang's left gauntlet fired, shotgun pellets flying past Joey's face as his pistols spun. Yang brought another punch across but it was deflected by one of Joey's barrels. Joey's hands kept spinning the weapons as he swatted away each punch.

"Woooo!" Ron cheered as Joey's spinning became more elaborate. At one point one of the pistols was sent flying through the air. Joey caught it in his left hand and brought his arm down to trap Yang's right arm. She brought her left fist toward him and he used his other arm to trap that fist against her previously trapped one, pinning her arms together. They made eye contact as their faces became close.

"Oh I love a fast woman," Joey snickered.

"Hey!" Ruby seemed irritated, "I'm the fast one!"

"Oh I know," Joey looked back with a wink. When he had turned his attention back to Yang she had an angry look. She stepped up onto his knee and broke his hold on her by kicking him away. A shot from her gauntlets propelled the two apart. He brought his pistol up as he flew backwards and placed a shot towards Yang. Her head weaved away as she landed.

"Gonna have to try harder…" Yang was cut off by a site everyone on her team reacted to. A strand of her hair fell in front of her. Joey was in for it now Ruby thought to herself as her sister's aura became visible.

"Seems like I'm a better shot than you thought Blondie," Joey joked. He hadn't realized what he'd just accomplished and what it would earn him but Ruby knew exactly what was coming. She didn't want to watch but she couldn't look away either.

"Umm," Ruby looked to Ron. "I hope you guys have a big dinner planned for Joey."

"Why?" Elodie asked, "He seems to have your sister's number." As though to prove Elodie wrong Yang shot forward with another straight punch. Joey tried to parry it but it was faster than before. He was able to dodge it but a follow up punch caught him in the stomach. Her gauntlet fired and while his aura was weak it protected him from the shot firing up and through his body. The impact itself caused Joey to cough as he dropped his pistols. His teammates gasped as she landed a second shot, then a third and ended with a right cross on his cheek. Joey flew backwards, spinning as he did so. Yang's aura began to calm down as she walked towards Joey.

"Ok ok Blondie," Joey coughed as he staggered to his feet, "that's enough."

"Aww had enough already?" She taunted him as she extended a hand to him, "I'm not done yet."

"I can tell," Joey coughed again, this time blood came from his mouth, "but my body is.. Steve." The wolf collapsed as Yang caught him.

"Ron! Steve!" Yang yelled as she held Joey up. The wooden robot rushed over along with their team lead. "I didn't think I was that rough with him."

"This is what happens when Joey heals too much without eating," Ron explained, "Steve get Joey inside, maybe feed him something." Elodie had walked up to the group as well.

"Steve can stay out here and supervise training," Elodie told Ron, "I can take care of Joey." Elodie took Joey from Yang's arms and helped him stagger his way to the house. Chris was standing as well.

"Yang you said you weren't done right?" Chris asked the blonde who was still a bit concerned for her sparring partner.

"Yea um," Yang's attention was on Elodie and Joey still, she refocused and saw that Chris was tightening his gloves. "I could still fight if that's what you mean."

"Great," Chris stretched his arms a bit, "it's been a while since I had a real hand-to-hand opponent." Ron and Steve backed off.

"Chris isn't that a bit unfair," Ron pointed out.

"Nah," Chris shrugged, "she held her own against Joey just fine. So we should be fine."

"Whenever you're ready," Yang told him as she took a fighting stance again. Chris nodded and Steve gave the signal to begin. Yang jumped forward as she had with Joey but instead of a straight punch she bobbed to the side and tried to land a punch on Chris' ribs. Chris parried with his forearm and used his other arm to press her upper arm away, giving him an inside angle on her. He brought his right hand up to her face, stopping right before he made contact. He flicked her nose and she staggered back with confusion. "What was that?"

"You get stronger when you're hit," Chris noticed from Joey's single shot to her hair. "So I don't think hitting you hard is going to be a good idea." Chris took his fighting stance again as Yang came back at him. This punch was straight and Chris' large fist engulfed hers but he noticed the barrel of the gauntlet was engaging so he released the fist and slid his hand to slap the weapon away from him. Her second fist was coming and he parried it down so that he was behind her, flicking her on the back of the head. "Hit," he said coolly, Yang was becoming irritated. She spun and tried to land another punch but he blocked it so that the barrel wasn't aimed towards him. Yang looked down and kicked at his legs but instead of dodging he brought his leg up to block. This caused Yang's leg to come back down with a slight bit of pain on her shin from the contact. She brought her fist back but it was caught, Chris brought the blonde's arm up and twisted to put himself behind her again. His free hand came back up to flick her shoulder as he sighed, "hit."

"Quit saying that!" Yang was angry as she kicked at his leg. He released her and stepped back as she fired a projectile towards him. He placed his hands out with a teal glow and the projectile was dissipated around a small wind shield.

"Oh this is getting good," Ron said to Weiss. Weiss didn't respond, her arms were crossed as she watched her teammate.

"Come on sis you can do it!" Ruby cheered for her sister as Chris and Yang went back and forth. The fight had become a flurry of fists and kicks, with Yang as the aggressor. Yang jumped and fired a shot backwards to propel herself into a powerful kick. Both of Chris' hands caught the kick and she looked at him as her other leg touched the floor. Elodie returned to the group as Chris tossed Yang upwards, sending her flipping backwards.

"At least Chris didn't underestimate her," Elodie muttered, "Ron it's not like Joey to get into a fight without thinking like that."

"I'm sure it has something to do with our guests," Ron pointed towards Ruby who was too engulfed in the fight to care. Elodie's eyes flashed a slight green color. Chris flicked Yang's forehead as she fell to the ground. She growled and got back to her feet quickly, throwing punch after punch only to have them deflected by her larger opponent.

"Hopefully he doesn't get too distracted," Elodie crossed her arms and looked to Ruby, "we need him at the top of his game if we're gonna end the White Fang."

"El," Joey's voice came from behind his teammates, he was eating one of Chris' energy bars. "I'm gonna be fine. Just getting to know some new friends is all. Plus, we oughta be thinkin' about the tournament for now."

"But you've wanted to put an end to the White Fang for so long," Elodie pointed out, "what brought about this change of heart?"

"Joey may be stubborn but he isn't stupid El," Ron told her, "you know that better than anyone. The news shows it and we've confirmed it for ourselves too. That warehouse was the last place that White Fang activity has been reported in Vale. The only way we could continue to fight the White Fang would be to follow them out of the city and we can't do that while juggling training and classes." Elodie nodded and agreed with her leader as they turned back to the fight. Yang's breathing had become heavier as her punches began to slow down. Her last punch was a powerhouse; Chris anticipated it and used the force against her to throw her off balance. The blonde fighter fell to the floor face first as Chris stood off to the side. She rolled over and was about to get up when he extended his hand to her.

"You're pretty good," Chris said as she took his hand. He pulled Yang up and they both stood in front of each other. "Are you thinking about fighting in the festival?"

"As a matter of fact I am," Yang answered. She looked to her team who was still sitting on the porch. Blake seemed spaced out as always but Weiss was still cold as ever, her arms crossed as she made eye contact with Yang.

"If you're gonna compete you should come back and train with us," Ron told Yang, "I feel like practicing with you could really help Joey close his gap with fighting hand-to-hand combatants." Chris walked up to Weiss whose arms hadn't left their position.

* * *

"What's going on with you?" Chris asked her."Your team is all having fun, even Blake seems to be getting into it." He pointed at Blake and Elodie who were preparing for a sparring match. He could tell gaining Weiss' trust was going to be the hardest part. Ruby seemed to be naturally trusting, Yang usually trusted her sister's judgment and Blake had something in common with the rest of his team, stopping the White Fang.

"Sorry that I'm not just willing to trust you so quickly," Weiss' attitude would have been off putting but Chris was a patient person.

"Well the rest of your team does," Chris sat in a chair next to Weiss, "and from what it looks like we're after the same thing. We all want to stop the White Fang, so what's it going to take to earn your trust?"

"I don't know," Weiss seemed irritated. "Honestly, I don't see why you want to be involved in our mission anyways. You can't even prove that Joey is telling the truth about his company."

"Pick a stone," Chris' statement confused Weiss.

"What?" Weiss asked, "what does that have to do with.."

"Just bring me a stone," Chris told her, "please. I want to show you something that I don't share with just anyone." She seemed confused but she did what he asked, grabbing a small rock from the ground in front of the porch. She handed it to Chris who looked at her, "I never thought I'd be sharing this with a Schnee but look closely." Chris' eyes had a hint of nervousness but he shook it off and closed his fist around the stone, his eyes closed as well. He was nervous but he needed to shut all of that out in order to activate his semblance.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked him as a slight glow came from his fist. Explaining it to her would have been difficult as it is so he continued to just show her. He opened it and revealed that the stone had become a dust crystal.

"All my life I have hidden this ability from your family," Chris told her, "my parents were afraid that if they found out about me they'd take me, kidnap me and toss me in some dust mine somewhere."

"What.. what was that?" Weiss asked in awe, "What, how did you do that?"

"Dust is in every part of the Earth," Chris explained, "and my semblance allows me to awaken the dust from its dormant form."

"So you can pull dust from average rocks?" Weiss was amazed, "my family would do anything for that kind of power."

"Exactly why I keep it hidden," Chris placed the crystal into Weiss' hand, "no offense but your family's employment practices aren't exactly the best when it comes to mine workers."

"Why are you showing me this?" Weiss asked him, "what's to keep me from telling my family."

"Trust," Chris told her, "You're a huntress-in-training here at Beacon. So I'm trusting that you put your job first ahead of your family's financial gain."

"You just met me," Weiss snapped, "why trust me so easily?"

"When Chris first met me I was the heir to a company that 'funds terrorists' remember?" Joey must have overheard their conversation. "But he trusted me because we had similar goals. He chose to see the good in me and he's doing the same with you."

"All I'm asking is that you extend that trust to my team," Chris closed her hand around the stone, "we're all hunters, we all want the same thing." Weiss' rigid posture seemed to relax slightly. The three of them watched as Elodie and Blake began their match, although it was hard to keep track of them as their fight quickly became a flurry of blades meeting in mid air. Blake was using her clones to distract the rabbit but Elodie's eyes were somehow keeping track of the cat in the open battlefield. Once Elodie realized how Blake fought she combined her daggers into their bow form in order to put range between them. She used her bow to parry Gambol Shroud and occasionally strike Blake on the body whenever there was an opening.

* * *

Team RWBY was back in their dorm room. Yang was still sore from her sparing match with Chris as she sprawled out on her bed. "I like them," Yang said with a smile. She'd found a group of students that would help her get stronger. She'd also been able to stop thinking about that dream of the dark figure that had saved her on the train. The fight she had against Neo before the Breach was humiliating and fighting Chris reminded her of it. Unlike Neo though, Chris would be able to help her get better. She looked over to Blake and saw the same fatigue on the cat's face, even if she didn't want to show it. Fighting Elodie took a toll on her partner.

"Yea me too," Ruby agreed with her sister. Ruby was probably trying not to show it but Yang could see that her little sister was interested in more than that workshop she'd been so excited about.

"They seem alright," Weiss was obviously trying to hold onto her cool demeanor.

"I'm not sure about Joey's company," Blake told them with a reluctant tone, "but they're on our side. Elodie isn't half bad in a fight either." That was an understatement. More than once they'd lost track of Elodie's blades and the way she seamlessly switched between blade and bow had left Blake at a loss during their match.

"Hopefully their leader is more than just a walking pun machine," Ruby pointed out.

"I like his puns," Yang laughed, "he's very punny." The group laughed, with Ruby and Yang's laughs dominating the room. Yang had realized that they hadn't gotten to see Ron's fighting style outside of a few blade swipes and his explanation of how he used his assault rifle. She'd have to change that soon if she was going to have to change that soon if she wanted to improve her chances of winning the tournament.

* * *

"Boss do you think it was a mistake to show your power?" Steve was at the doorway to Chris' room. Inside Chris was laying on a sleeping bag, the ground below him had no floor but instead was bare earth.

"We'll find out," Chris told the wooden robot, "but for now we need to show them that we're being honest. There are enough enemies around without the students of Beacon losing faith in each other. I'm gonna get some rest. Good night Steve." Chris turned away from the door, feeling the earth underneath his body as he closed his eyes. His team had decided to sleep in their house outside of Beacon that night. They were too exhausted to make the trip back to their dorm and decided a good night's rest was more important than a short walk to class in the morning.

"Good night boss," Steve closed the door and Chris heard the mechanical feet walking away from it.

"Who programmed him to address people as boss?" Chris wondered as he fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Elodie's eyes opened slightly, she could see the sun creeping through her bedroom window but she chose to ignore it for a few more moments. Nothing could ever beat the feeling of waking up in her own bed. As a child she'd lived out doors for a while. Surviving out on the streets or in the woods outside of towns. Her ears perked as she heard the door to her room open.

"Ms. Snow," Steve's voice came from the doorway, "I've begun breakfast but I know that you'll want to add some finishing touches." Elodie turned to the robot and stretched, her bare legs running along the blankets as she prepared to get up. She was wearing a large flannel that fell to her thighs, acting almost like a short dress.

"I'm up," Elodie sat forward as Steve turned to leave. "Go wake up the others."

"On it Boss," Steve said as he left. Her eyes followed the robot with a confused look.

"Joey keeps programming him to say that," Elodie chuckled as she thought about her teammate's prank. She got out of the bed and went to her closet, finding her uniform and laying it across her bed.

* * *

"Elodie can you help me here," Ron approached her with his uniform on. His tie was left undone, sitting around his neck.

"When are you gonna learn to do that on your own?" Joey laughed as he came into the room, he was also in uniform and was carrying his gun case.

"I guess you can say," Elodie began to chuckle as she tied the tie, "ties are _knot_ his strong _suit."_

"Did she just..?" Ron was dumbfounded as Joey began to laugh. Elodie may have trained Ron how to fight but at a great cost. His knack for making terrible puns had rubbed off on her.

"Oh yea," Chris came out of the hallway behind Joey. Elodie always thought that Chris looked strange in real shoes and his uniform. He tended to wear sandals or no shoes at all. He liked feeling the ground under his feet, she always thought it had something to do with is connection to dust. "She did."

"Thanks El," Ron straightened the tie.

"No problem," She smiled. "Joey, you and Chris get enough to eat?"

"Yes ma'am," Joey smiled at her, "couldn't even tell the eggs weren't real."

"You never can," Chris bumped his partner. Joey didn't get as excited about food as his two teammates but he couldn't hide that he had the same appetite. Ron and Chris left the room to grab their school bags as Joey and Elodie were left alone.

"Do you need any help in the kitchen?" Joey asked the rabbit as she turned to place some dishes into the sink.

"No," Elodie told him, "I think Steve is gonna take care of them." She walked toward him and straightened the rose pin on his lapel. Their eyes met for a bit, her eyes turning a slight pinkish shade. "Thanks for asking though."

"Anytime El," Joey said. When he wasn't angry Joey was always looking out for the team. He just spent so much time obsessing over the White Fang that it rarely came out at home. Sometimes she wished that they could just be regular hunters, maybe without that obsession he'd notice how much she cared for him. He never had though, which was probably her fault in the first place and now she was watching him with that new huntress. "Come on Chris and Ron are probably waiting for us." Joey turned and his hand brushed against hers. When their hands touched she could feel him. Not just his skin on hers but she could feel his emotions. Every time they touched Joey was always a mix of anger and passion but this morning felt a little different. He felt calmer today and whether it was her cooking or his meeting Ruby she was happy about it. Maybe changing their focus from the White Fang to the tournament was going to good for the team. The two of them left the kitchen to meet with their teammates so that they could head to Beacon.

* * *

"Have you told Ron about it?" Chris asked his partner. Ruby and Weiss were approaching the two but Weiss stopped Ruby. Without a word Weiss put a finger up to her mouth, motioning for Ruby to stay quiet. She looked around the locker to see that Joey was wearing his uniform and a backpack over his shoulder as he placed his weapon case inside of his locker. "I mean doing something like this could be a big deal."

"I know that," Joey sighed, she could hear the stress in his voice. "But we aren't even going anywhere with this yet. I think this little project can just stay between the two of us for now." Ruby wasn't sure what project he was talking about but it could explain why he closed his laptop so quickly when she was in his workshop.

"I don't know," Chris was trying to hint that hiding something may not be the best idea, even Ruby could hear that in his voice.

"It'll be fine," Joey looked at him as he shut the locker, "after Lavender, I want to make sure nothing like that ever has to happen again." Ruby wasn't sure what they were talking about but she noticed that Joey had a sad expression so, against Weiss' obvious want to stay unnoticed she stepped out.

* * *

"How many more times do you need to hear it?" Chris scowled at him. "That wasn't your.." His large partner was cut off by someone calling to them. Joey knew it wasn't his fault but if he could stop it in the future maybe the survivor's guilt would go away. The voice was familiar to Joey as Ruby's.

"Hey guys," Ruby and Weiss walked up to them, "Whats going on?"

"Mornin' ladies," Joey greeted them, his attitude shifting as soon as he turned to face the young huntresses. "How are you?" Normally he was certain his shift in attitude would have just been a way to hide their conversation but he was genuinely happy to see the hooded huntress.

"We're well," Weiss said, "just headed to class."

"Would you like some company to walk with you?" Joey asked them looking to his partner. Chris rolled his eyes slightly at the Wolf Faunus.

"Sure," Ruby smiled as she walked next to Joey. As they stepped out of the locker room and into the hallway they noticed an abnormal amount of students were pushing their way through the halls. "What is going on here?" The four students looked to each other as Ruby heard a familiar voice behind them.

"You haven't heard yet?" Pyrrha was behind them, also coming out of the locker room. "With the tournament and festival being postponed for two months Beacon is going to be hosting the other schools until it starts." The rest of Team JNPR was walking behind her. Joey recognized them from the cafeteria when he had confronted Cardin but he hadn't really gotten to know them like he had Team RWBY.

"I don't think we were acquainted," Joey stepped over to be in front of Pyrrha, "You're Pyrrha Nikos right? Joey Wulfechester, I hear you're quite the duelist." Pyrrha laughed nervously.

"That's what people tell me," She answered him.

"Are you going to compete in the tournament as well?" He asked her as he noticed Chris motioning toward the hall.

"Oh where are my manners," Joey pointed his thumb to his partner, "This is my partner Chris Russet." Joey knew what Chris had really wanted but White Fang or not this tournament was approaching pretty quickly and he wanted to win. He had been training with Chris to get better at hand to hand combat. For as much as he loved his guns he knew they could only do so much and his duel with Yang proved that. He'd used them against her and all he managed to do was piss the blonde off.

"Joey we really need to get to class," Chris told him. Joey agreed with his partner, they hadn't expected to have so many students in the halls this morning and Goodwitch was on Team FWCS's case enough as it was.

"I overheard you saying you'd walk with Ruby and Weiss," Pyrrha told him, "maybe we could come with you." Joey didn't mind and Chris's face told him that he just wanted to get to class on time. Weiss expression also seemed to be motioning to Ruby that she wanted to go. Jaune was saying something to her but no one had been paying attention.

"I don't see a problem with it," Joey smiled at them. Pyrrha's teammates were all smiling and it would have made Joey a little nervous until he realized these four had only ever dealt with Grimm from what he knew. No terrorist organizations or trust issues. It was actually a welcome sight to Joey because between his own dealings with the White Fang and what he knew about team RWBY it was nice to know some of his fellow students weren't going to be burdened with such an abnormal academy life. Of course he couldn't know that for sure but he was happy for a moment just imagining that these four would be simple Huntsmen and Huntresses. After they had arrived team JNPR went into their class but as Ruby and Weiss moved to follow them Joey stopped them. "Hey Ruby," the girls turned to him, "maybe if you're not busy after class the four of us can go grab a bite to eat?"

"We'll see," Weiss answered for her. Weiss' answer was met with an awkward gasp from Ruby as the heiress dragged the smaller huntress into their class. Chris had obviously had enough socializing and began to do the same to his faunus partner.

"I get wanting to go out with her but why are you including me?" Chris asked as he dragged his friend with him.

"Did you see how Weiss reacted?" Joey pointed out as he spun to walk with his partner rather than continue to be dragged. "I knew I'd have invite both of 'em. You don't have to think of it as a date or anything. We're just classmates getting food after class. We can discuss plans for the tournament."

"What if we get paired against them though?" Chris asked, before Joey answered he asked another question. "What if I already had plans?"

"Then our match will just get that much easier," Joey smirked. He didn't like the idea of getting inside information on the younger team just to win, but it was a good excuse to spend more time with Ruby. "Plus, you never have plans!" He was walking next to his partner now and patted him on the back.

"I might..." Chris said under his breathe.

* * *

It was happening again. Vale wasn't exactly a wet continent away from the docks and Azule Beryl was feeling it. Despite his usual sporadic attitude one of the few things he could control was his obvious craving for water. Growing up in a desert kingdom like Vacuo was always a nice excuse for him to get in the water because it was always hot. The truth was that he needed the water. He didn't always need to be submerged in it but he did drink plenty of it and his water bottle was empty for the fifth time since he'd started classes for the day, it was only noon. Being an amphibious faunus had some perks but right now Azule was not too happy. He looked around nervously as he itched the gills on the sides of his neck that closed tightly when he was out of the water. The only way someone could tell he wasn't human was when he was in the water. It was great that he didn't always have to endure being mocked like other faunus who had ears. Having to stay at Beacon for this semester was already turning out to be a drag and it was only the first day. He and the rest of his team had yet to find a good place for him to swim so he'd resorted to taking long showers and drinking gallons of water before bed. He thought that the water dependency may all be in his head but some days it felt so real that he threw logic out the window. His thoughts were so wrapped up in water that he hadn't even noticed the green haired professor dismiss them. Oblong… Octobong…. Azule couldn't even remember his name let alone remember what the class was about. His sea colored eyes were having trouble keeping open during the class. "Hey Sharkbait you feelin' alright?" His teammate put a hand on his shoulder and held his water bottle out. Ray Stewart always carried an extra water bottle just in case Azule ran out. He was a good teammate and a better friend but that wasn't crossing Azule's mind at the moment. He opened the bottle and put it to his mouth, drinking the water without answering his taller teammate. It wasn't a matter of heat or anything he just wanted water. Seeing that the other students were confined to school uniforms made him glad that he was allowed to just wear his blue swim shorts and white t-shirt. The t-shirt had a shark design on it. He also had a large shark tooth on a string around his neck. He had finished the water and finally acknowledged his teammate.

"Thanks Ray," he sighed happily followed by a frustrated grunt. Ray Stewart was much taller than Azule. Unlike the amphibian faunus messy brown hair the taller human had short blonde hair. Ray had bright blue eyes and wore a t-shirt made out of chainmail. He was used to the heat of Vacuo and had also only brought shorts. Unlike Azule, his tan shorts weren't meant for swimming and instead had pouches on the side. "So where do we go now?" Azule was still adjusting to the new schedule. He didn't mind being in Vale for the festival, it was a nice change of scenery from Vacuo. The only set back was that the festival had been postponed for another month so Beacon was hosting the other kingdom's students until then. Azule stood up and his legs pushed the chair back making a screeching noise as the legs scraped against the floor. A lot of students turned to face him, some had even recognized him from Vacuo and began to snicker. Azule didn't really pay attention to them but turned to his other teammates instead. The other two were their leader, Mason Gray, and the second in command, Nickole Luna. Mason was a dark skinned teen that stood a few inches below Ray. He was wearing a black tank top with black cargo shorts, a stone triangle hung from a leather strap around his neck. Nickole, on the other hand, was a pale young lady with white hair kept tied back in a long thin pony tail that fell down the length of her back. Her black tank top had a white jacket over it and she wore tight black jeans that cut off just above her ankles. Her piercing silver eyes were staring at Azule in disapproval as he realized they had already gotten their things together and were ready to leave. As Azule turned to the aisle that led out of the class he tripped over the back leg of his chair and fell forward, running straight into a uniformed student, one of the Vale students.

"Woah there Sharkbait, " another student said from behind the one Azule had run into.

"That chair just doesn't like you does it?" The student had helped Azule keep his balance but between the sudden rush of having water in his system and the embarrassment he felt from the chair situations he couldn't form any words.

"Well hopefully he handles Grimm better than he handled that chair," the other student said with a slight laugh, Azule had noticed that his accent was a little different than the other students. "Come on Ron let's go get lunch." The two students left and Azule was still standing there dumbstruck.

"Who were they?" Ray asked, "and how did he know your nickname?"

"Who cares?" Mason asked as he nudged his team out of the aisle. "Can we just get lunch before we have to fight these other students for it?" Azule understood what Mason meant, there were a lot of students sharing Beacon this semester and while he didn't actually think they'd have to fight for food he definitely didn't want to be at the end of the line.

* * *

After their class had ended Elodie separated from her team. She was searching for Blake. After their duel something still didn't feel right. The last time they made contact Elodie could feel the doubt in the cat's movements, whether it was just the difference in skill between the two or the same mistrust that Blake had held for Joey was what Elodie still hadn't figured out. Elodie's abilities allowed her to read people well. It was one of the many perks of being an empath. She knew if Blake wasn't with her team she'd probably be in the library. Elodie had made her way straight to the library because she had a feeling Joey would be going to see Ruby after class and Yang still never found out about Ron's Ursa from the Emerald Forest, meaning Blake would most likely be studying alone. Despite the slight jealousy she felt over Ruby and Joey the rabbit was happy that her team had found another team willing to accept them. CFVY accepted them but that's because Joey and Coco had gotten to know each other before FWCS had become synonymous with bad luck. From the start of their time together she had no doubt of her willingness to team up with the wolf faunus but she was also looking out for Ron and had worried how he would handle being on a team with someone who would be stigmatized by his family's name. As she had thought Elodie found Blake inside of the library, more specifically Blake was getting ready to leave the library. The rabbit didn't try to conceal herself.

"Hey Blake," She smiled amiably at the cat. "How were your classes?"

"Umm," the cat seemed a bit nervous, "they were alright I guess." Blake was obviously an introverted person, only opening up to her teammates but Elodie needed to make sure that Blake knew where her team stood.

"Are you busy right now?" Elodie asked. Blake was quiet, her silence showing that she really wasn't sure how to answer. The cat was looking for a way to avoid her but she was failing. Elodie had caught her at the perfect time for her plan. Without a legitimate excuse Elodie would be able to have a private conversation with her. She'd get what she needed to know from the cat and maybe even convince her once and for all that they are all on the same side against the White Fang. In her mind it sounded terrible, like she was manipulating the girl but Elodie knew how people worked. She could feel them, it was her gift and if that gift meant saving her teammate's lives than a little manipulation was worth it. The two left the library, Elodie was searching among the crowds of foreign students for a private place for them to talk. Eventually the two girls ended up on the roof of Blake's dorm. They had talked about small things during their search but nothing concerning the White Fang. Elodie could make small talk with this girl all night but she could feel the lack of interest the cat had for these minor conversations. "So what brought you to Beacon?"

Blake stared at her for a moment. It was a common question at the school but the way Elodie asked was so sudden that it caught her of guard. "Well.. I wanted a chance to fight for change," Blake told her, "it was the same reason I fought for.." she paused realizing that they were above other people's rooms. Elodie's ears had been trained for the sound of any other students in the rooms below them, movements or anything that could signify an eavesdropper. Elodie nodded for the cat to continue. "Well you know, but all that changed when Adam decided to show his true colors."

"What did he do?" Elodie sat at the edge of the building, looking down at the ground below and out at the rest of the campus.

"He hurt people," Blake sighed, "he tried to kill innocent people, some of them may have been faunas. If I hadn't stopped him he may have killed them. I'll never really know but after that I left. I couldn't trust him anymore and now that we've found out they've taken some of Atlas' military tech I have to stop them!" Blake was becoming angry, still standing over Elodie but the rabbit looked up at her and patted the edge she was sitting on. Blake looked a little uneasy but she gave in and sat next to the rabbit.

"We have to stop them," Elodie corrected her. "Atlas isn't the only place the White Fang steals their gear from. Do you know why I'm here?"

"No," Blake's eyes told her that the cat couldn't see the connection Elodie was about to make.

"I wanted to fight for change too," Elodie told her, "I wanted to be the faunus fighting to protect everyone from the Grimm. Human, faunus, or any other creature they threaten. We all deserve life and the Grimm only exist to take that from us. So I fight to stop them. The White Fang are in my way though, because I'm here on scholarships from Wulfechester Arms."

"I didn't know they gave scholarships," Blake pointed out, "at least I've never heard of that."

"They typically don't," Elodie's smile turned into a slight smirk, "but before she passed away the CEO, Joey's mother, made one for a little thief stealing vegetables from her estate."

"Vegetables?" Blake looked at her in disbelief.

"It's kind of a long story," Elodie smiled, "Ron and Joey have their stories though and I guess it would be nice to tell mine for once. I wouldn't have gotten into Beacon if it weren't for Joey's family, I wouldn't have even made it into Signal."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked her, "you said you helped Ron through Signal and I saw how you fight. You're meant to be here."

"I know that but I wouldn't be here if his mother hadn't done what she did for me. When I met the Wulfechesters I was just a runaway. I'd been living in an orphanage all my life until I was eight. It was horrible there, I was the only faunus and the staff there didn't treat the children right as it was. But for me it was worse, they hit us over little things beds made incorrectly or shoes out of place. I was good at doing what they wanted but that didn't mean anything to them. The head of the house was hardest on me, she'd drag me by my ears asking if I thought I was special because of them. She told me they made me a freak. It was horrible. One day I just couldn't take it anymore, so I snuck out with nothing but the clothes they had given me. I had to tear off the orphanage's patch that was on the coat I had taken and I ripped the arm of the jacket doing it. Exposed and alone I made my way into the city. It was harsh there but I was small, small enough to hide whenever I ran into trouble. Then one day I met a woman, she carried these large pistols and stood tall. She was confident and her voice was powerful. Besides the initial fear I felt from having one of the Snapdragons pointed at me, I had found an instant role model. What's more was behind that powerful, confident woman was a caring motherly instinct that extended past her son and to me. She didn't take me in, not because she didn't want to but because I had trust issues. There were people on the streets that had tried to get me to stay in their homes with them, they'd tried to hurt me or take advantage of me so I had trust issues. So I spent my time in the woods near Joey's estate. Joey and I would play around the family's garden until his mother decided that if I wasn't going to live with them that I should be living somewhere. That's when I went to Signal."

"I get it now," Elodie nodded at Blake's response, "so you're working with Joey to clear his family's name because it's attached to you too. But it's hard to deny that someone in the company must be supplying the White Fang."

"I can't disagree with you but Joey isn't ready to accept that yet," the truth was that Joey couldn't accept it. His parents had been killed by a group of humans who had hated the faunus at a time when Wulfechester Arms had come out as a supporter of the peaceful protests the White Fang were participating in. A thought suddenly crossed her mind and she realized exactly what it was she needed from the cat girl. "When did the White Fang become violent?"

"A little over 6 years ago," Blake told her, "some of them have always been kind of violent but 6 years ago almost all of them turned to violence, why?" It was as Elodie thought.

"Joey's parents were killed seven years ago. He's been under the impression that the White Fang became violent because of his parent's deaths and it would seem he was right. He's been angry with them ever since though. He thinks their violence is justifying what those humans did to his parents and he may be right. Those humans only attacked his parents when they thought the Wulfechester's were funding the White Fang... just like you when we first met." Blake's eyes fell downward with a look, no, a feeling of guilt that Elodie could actually sense. That's when she noticed that she'd instinctively put her hand over Blake's as a sign of support.

"I didn't know any of this," Blake's eyes still hadn't come up. "Ruby told me a bit of what Joey told her, about his powers and what he was doing when he discovered them."

"Joey's mother had a mission for her company. They would produce the finest weapons and tech to protect people from the Grimm. She had decided the company was done funding or providing for militaries that planned to fight against non-Grimm forces. She knew the history that Wulfechester arms had with war and killing and she vowed to stop it. In a way I follow that as well. If Joey had his way he'd have killed every White Fang member we've fought. I keep him from going that far but it is getting harder. The more he holds back the more he thinks that he's not doing enough to stop them. Blake you had every reason not to trust him at first, but thank you for listening. Do you understand now?" The cat nodded at her. "Good." Elodie's hand found Blake's chin and led her face up. "Stop feeling so bad now and let's work together to stop whatever it is they're doing." Blake didn't have to speak for Elodie to know what she was about to say. She knew now that Blake genuinely understood. She knew that Blake agreed. Most importantly she knew that Blake would work with Joey more readily in the future which meant she had accomplished her goal.

* * *

"So those are Blake's teammates?" The small hooded girl hissed. She was looking down at Ruby and Weiss walking with a larger student and one in a black hat. Adam had provided Krystal and her partner, Raine, with a detailed profile of the young huntresses. She remembered how torn Adam was when the White Fang first lost Blake and she'd been working every day to take Blake's place. Krystal was willing to kill to spread the White Fang's message and further the cause.

"Maybe these other two were involved in the attack on Adam the other night?" Raine mused. He was hiding behind a beowulf mask and Krystal was wearing one in the likeness of a Deathstalker.

"Maybe," Krystal agreed with her partner, "taking them out might help Adam too. But let's be sure to get the Schnee girl first. I've heard that red one is pretty fast so you can take care of her."

"We should have brought the others," Raine sighed, "would have been cleaner." Raine had a point. "Although I don't think Adam's human allies would like it. We're supposed to keep a low profile with that Torchwick guy locked up." Another good point, but Krystal didn't want to miss out on the chance to kill Weiss Schnee.

"Don't be such a spoiled sport," she hissed again as she prepared to drop down on the group of students. "We'll make it look like a revenge killing. We can't have people thinking the White Fang is weak because we lost some human."


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Elodie had wanted to ask Blake to come with her to get dinner but the cat mentioned that she was supposed to meet up with a friend so Elodie went into Vale alone. She'd stopped by her dorm to change out of her uniform. Elodie was wearing her flannel and jeans with a black scarf to keep her neck warm. The autumn weather was starting to get colder so the scarf was wrapped up around her mouth. Joey told her in class that he was dragging Chris out with him somewhere but she could tell that Chris was reluctant to go. If she ran into them maybe she could save the big guy from whatever Joey had him mixed up in. The rabbit wasn't used to being alone and she thought about calling Ron only to remember that Yang was still adamant about that Ursa story so they'd probably be together. She found herself happy for her friends but at the same time feeling extremely lonely. As she passed a window she saw her reflection and stopped. Her eyes had shifted to a deep blue and she realized the sadness she felt was showing itself to the rest of the world. She was used to controlling her emotions around people but the comfort she felt with her team meant that she didn't have to do that all the time and now that she was alone she knew she didn't have to. When she was younger her change in eye color often betrayed her, making it near impossible to lie without her eyes turning yellow out of fear. Now she'd learned to control it and unless she was feeling pure genuine emotion her eye changing only happened when she wanted it to. She always found it useful for making a point when the boys got out of hand.

Elodie walked past the cafe she was planning to eat at and had to turn around in order to go back. She could smell the food but if she hadn't she'd have probably walked around the neighborhood lost in thought. She sat down at a table by the window and retrieved her scroll from her pocket as she waited for her server.

* * *

"I still think we should tell the others," Raine told his partner. They had stalked the four students by running along rooftops for three hours. "We've been following them long enough. I'm certain Damask and Amethyst could have been here by now."

"But where's the fun in that?" Krystal complained playfully. Raine shrugged, he knew that he could just call the others and have them in front of the restaurant in fifteen minutes but he also knew that would create a huge scene. He wanted to keep this quiet, even if the public execution of a Schnee could help send a message for the White Fang he wasn't looking to go to jail with Torchwick. As their prey left the restaurant he noticed that the one with the wide hat was holding it. The four of them were walking past an ally as he brought his hat up over his head. Raine recognized him right away and turned to his teammate. They couldn't attack Joey Wulfechester and Weiss Schnee! Wulfchester Arms had been a scapegoat for the White Fang for years but openly attacking the heir could ruin that perception.

"Krystal we need to..." She was gone! He looked down to the alley as he heard one of targets below yelp. "Oh no." He followed his teammate down. At least she'd grabbed the right one.

* * *

Chris was being awfully quiet, even for the big guy. Joey had almost begun to feel bad for dragging him along but he was sure Chris had nothing better to do. This remorse was short lived as he looked over to Ruby who was still going on about her excitement surrounding the festival. Weiss had even joined her partner in being excited. It was strange to see the heiress become so relaxed but it was better than the cold glares she had given him when they first met. "I can't wait for the tournament matches to start!" Ruby had become exasperated with excitement from the conversation. Before Joey could talk about his own excitement he heard the sound of chains rattling and flying in their direction.

"What in the hell?" Joey's head turned to see a dagger on a chain wrapped around Weiss' neck. Weiss yelped and clawed at the weapon as it tightened around her neck and pulled her into the alley next to the group. Joey's right hand dropped to his pistol as Ruby rushed forward and drew Crescent Rose. The two of them and Chris had followed her into the alley in time to see a small feminine figure with a Deathstalker mask materialize behind Weiss holding a blade to her throat. Joey's left hand snatched his scroll from his coat pocket but he only had the chance to press two buttons before the device was torn from his hand by a sword strike.

"I can't let you do that Mr. Wulfechester," the man in the beowulf mask told him. He was holding two short swords. The hand guards of the swords had pistol barrels and the handles had triggers. The man had moved the weapons back up to point the barrels at Chris and Ruby.

"Weiss!" Ruby called for her partner concerned. Joey's eyes hadn't left the beowulf but he wanted to draw his snapdragon and put a bullet in that death stalker girl.

"Let her go," Joey growled, "I don't know what's going on but the girl ain't done nothing to you."

"You're a faunus!" The beowulf shouted, "what makes you think a Schnee hasn't done something to faunus? Their company is the reason people don't see how incredible we are." Joey snapped around ready to draw but he heard a sound like a small cannon firing and felt a sharp burning sensation in his shoulder. He looked down and saw that one of the girls daggers had barely penetrated his shoulder. He was impressed that the small blade had broken his aura, although it was thinner than other auras it should have at least deflected a weapon this small. He figured that his semblance would take care of the wound as he pulled the blade out. The chain retracted back to the deathstalker as she snickered. "Dammit," Joey heard the beowulf under his breath.

"What's wrong?" He turned back to the swordsman and that's when he noticed that there were two of him.

* * *

Raine was fairly surprised that Joey was still standing. He hadn't meant for the wolf to hear him curse under his breath and quickly recovered, ignoring Joey's question as he realized the poison was starting to set in. "The tips of my partners blades are poisoned," as he explained the wound in Joey's shoulder closed. "Even if it doesn't kill you in the next few minutes you're probably seeing double."

"I've got two guns," although the wolf was poisoned he drew his weapons with a blinding speed and spun them, training the weapons on Raine. The swordsman was staring down the two pistols before he could bring his own weapons to focus on his opponent. "One for each of you." Joey's words had become slurred but he still had a confident smirk. Joey wasn't the only fast one, Raine saw that Chris was already getting close to Krystal. Weiss elbowed the small assassin and pushed away from her, drawing her rapier.

"Joey are you alright?" Ruby turned to back him up. Raine knew that regardless of the answer the poison would work its way through him quick enough. He dashed forward as the small huntress drew her scythe. It unfolded and the weapons reach swept him away. What she lacked for in size her weapon made up for in range. She fired behind her, using the recoil to fly toward him and he jumped over the scythe as it swept passed him. Joey had reached his weapon up and pulled the trigger. Raine smirked under his mask as he slapped the bullet, causing it to ricochet back and graze Joey's arm. His aura had reformed and protected him but Raine was certain Joey had received the message that Raine wasn't some White Fang grunt.

* * *

Chris saw that Weiss had used her weapon to knock one of the chain blades away as it was fired at her. The second was coming toward Chris and he side stepped it, grabbing the chain itself and pulling the small deathstalker girl toward him. "Weiss help Ruby," Chris told her calmly as he pulled himself within striking distance of the small assassin. He knew the weapons were poisoned so his first priority was keeping those blades occupied. He activated Heavenly Fist's fire dust mode and shoved a small fireball into his opponent. She took the hit and flew backwards, disappearing. He'd have lost track of her if the sparks from the fireball hadn't shifted to the left. That's when he realized she wasn't disappearing, this was camouflage! Sheltered or not he was the child of dust engineers and he was clever. He created another fireball that shimmered off of his opponents semblance. He saw an arm shape and palmed her wrist, revealing her.

"No fair!" She cried as she tried for another stab. Chris parried again, this fight was in his favor in terms of defense but if made one mistake that poison could end him. Even Joey hadn't recovered yet and his healing would have pushed any other venom out by now. Chris figured it was probably extremely potent. So he continued to play defense while he figured out how he was going to eliminate the daggers.

* * *

"I'm serious!" Ron told Yang as he finished his milkshake. Yang had found Ron after class and insisted he finally tell her about the Ursa Team FWCS had faced in the Emerald Forest. They had gone into Vale because Ron had been hungry, which seemed to be a recurring theme to Yang. She didn't mind as long as she finally got to find out. They had gone to a dive bar in Vale that had a restaurant attached to it. In the middle of the day the bar was basically empty save for two or three obvious alcoholics drinking at the bar. "It took all four of us to take the damn thing down."

"So run this by me again," Yang wanted clarity about how Team FWCS had killed the grimm.

"After the Emerald Forest Professor Lavender took us back down the cliffside," Ron began to tell the story again.

* * *

Ron couldn't believe it. This Lavender guy had known them all of five seconds before dragging him, his partner, her friend and the big guy back down into the Emerald Forest. Although this time they had gone down by the cliff side itself leaving them by at the base of the cliff ruins. Lavender had ordered them to stay in the opening at the end of the ruins as he walked toward the forest. They could still hear him as he whistled, "Here Ursa! Come get some tasty Beacon students!" Lavender's call was playful for an older looking teacher. Ron had gone from annoyed to dumbfounded as he saw Lavender leading the large Ursa back like an angry looking pet. "Feldgaunt!" Ron's head snapped up.

"Yes sir?" Ron asked as he stepped forward, his rifle's sights trained on the large bear, a small pack of Ursa following it. The large spines and armored head made Ron realize just how old this Grimm was. Old enough to command others and smart enough to know when to fight, obviously it was ready to fight even with a fully trained huntsman in front of it. This worried Ron, what was worse was that he got the nagging feeling the demented bear could sense his worry.

"What did Ozpin tell you about things you encounter?"

"He said to destroy them," Chris pointed out with a realization. Elodie's hand went to her face and Joey quickly raised his sub-machine gun.

"So why is this standing in front of me?" Lavender raised a hand with his palm up as though he was presenting it to them. It took a swipe at him and in a flash he was behind the students.

 _"How is he that fast?"_ Ron thought with frustration. He didn't have time to question the professor's speed further as the beast in front of them bellowed. "Joey let's light it up!"

"That's an idea I can get behind!" Joey fired his drummed subgun in short bursts but the Grimm didn't seem to respond as the bullets pinged off its armor and the spines protruding from its back. "Oh you gotta be kiddin' me." The beast had rushed forward as Ron had begun firing as well. His weapon's slower, louder blasts over powering the sounds that came from Daisy.

"Elodie, Chris! Flank it!" The orders were flowing out of him almost naturally. Everything he had learned in combat school was coming out but that didn't matter as much as killing the creature did. Before their assault on the monster could continue Ron had noticed a smaller group of Ursai had come out to join the larger one. "Joey I need you on crowd control." Elodie put an arrow through the head of one of the extra Ursa as she got on the side of the older one.

"I'm on it!" Joey nodded at his new leader and switched to the lever action rifle he had on his back. Ron couldn't hear the sound of Joey's lever chambering a round over the roar his assault rifle was creating. The beast was on him as his clip went dry and he knew his semblance would have to save him. He used his semblance to manifest a wall between him and the massive creature. As it bounced off the wall it attempted to change direction. Once its attention was away from him Ron changed the position of his manifestation so that it was under the beast. He lifted with the platform he had formed and tilted it so that the monster was sent tumbling backwards. As the beast regained its footing Ron looked to check on his teammates.

Joey was cycling through shells like he was possessed, each shot he fired finding the head of a new grimm. Ron liked it. Elodie had told him a little about the Wulfechester family but he'd imagined Joey was going to be some sheltered rich kid. The image in Ron's head was instantly blasted away at the sight of Joey reloading his rifle with blinding speed in order to continue covering his fellow students.

"Hey be careful with that!" Chris called to Joey as his fist, augmented with flames from the dust in his right glove, pummeled an Ursa head into the ground. He was responding to the bullet that had flown just inches over his head as he followed the punch down. Joey's smirk told Chris that the gunslinger knew what he was doing and the big guy let it go, upper cutting a new grimm as he closed the gap between him and the largest one. Elodie was also closing in.

"Joey be nice," Elodie yelled as she separated her bow into its dagger forms. She plunged each dagger into different targets and quickly retracted them. The claws of the larger beast were coming down on her and she used the daggers to block the downward strike. Ron manifested his aura along his shoulder and used his weight to knock the creature to its side. As it struggled back up he was able to place two shots from his rifle into its stomach. Ron was rewarded with the sight of blood spray from the beast but it wasn't down for good.

"There you go kid," Lavender applauded the young huntsman in training. With a large back hand swipe Ron and Elodie were knocked away but not before Elodie had prepared her bow. Mid flight she fired an arrow that grazed the beast's eye. Despite his sudden set back of being knocked to the base of Joey's feet this wasn't going too bad. The wolf wrapped the lever action rifle's strap around his shoulder and took the subgun up with his left hand, spraying short bursts at the beasts behind Chris. His right hand extended down to Ron who took it. He smiled up at him. For a rich-kid wolf faunus Joey was proving to be a team player and Ron knew that would be really important in the future if they really were going to be teammates.

"Come on boss," Joey lifted him and Ron reloaded Lanius. Lavender had tapped Ron on the shoulder.

"Give this a shot," Lavender was holding the sword he kept on his back out to Ron. Ron took it with a confused look. "Sometimes you need more than just a gun." Lavender looked at Joey who scoffed and sprayed down another couple of Grimm. The crowd was slowly dissipating under his fire and Chris' constant dust-augmented punches. Elodie had cleared her fair share of the minor grimm while keeping the large beast distracted.

"But this is your weapon sir," Ron reached out for it anyways. Something about the sword was calling to him. Although he was confused it was like his aura was lifting his hand without his consent.

"Not mine," Lavender lifted his coat to reveal chains that were attached to two large pistols. "This sword belongs to the world, huntsmen just inherited it..." Ron was silent as he put his hand on the blade's handle.

"That makes no sense," Joey called, obviously still irritated about Lavender's gun comment.

"You'll figure it out eventually," Lavender smirked. Ron felt something as he took the blade from the professor. He slung his rifle around his back and turned to face the giant beast. Chris had made it to the large grimm finally and took a fighting stance as it roared. Ron felt a pull in the handle of the blade. He looked down at the sword and realized that his semblance had activated without him commanding it. The strange part was that his aura manifestation wasn't making a wall or some other defensive structure. His manifestation had attached to the blade itself and was causing it to glow with the jade energy of his aura. Joey had stepped up next to him.

"Shiny," he commented at the sword in Ron's hands. "Wanna get this sonnova-." Joey was cut off by Elodie who was shouting orders now.

"Chris knock it off balance," she told him. The big guy nodded and ducked under a great swipe of claw. He jumped as he upper cut the beast but it did not become airborne like the smaller ones had before. "Now toss me some ice!" Chris conjured an icy energy between Elodie and the creature as it reeled back on its hind legs. She placed an arrow threw the energy cloud and it hit the floor between the beast's legs, creating a frozen solid block of ice where its feet had been.

"Joey got anything that can break that chest plate?" Ron asked the wolf as he continued charge the sword with his aura. Joey chuckled a bit.

"Got just the thing," Joey quickly drew his twin revolvers and began placing shots on the creature's chest. It was about to topple over when Chris grabbed one of its massive paws to hold it up. Elodie followed his example by using her daggers to impale the other claw. After five or six shots, Ron had lost count in all the excitement, the jade swordsman rushed forward and the gunslinger held his fire. With a mighty roar Ron leapt toward the beast, the energy in the sword extended the blade as he brought it forward. The chest armor shattered as Elodie and Chris were thrown to the floor along with the beast. The blade had found its way deep into the Ursa's chest with a sickening noise, blood spraying out onto the hand guard of the weapon and a bit onto Ron's armor. Ron was atop the creature as he realized what he had just done. He was gripping the blade in his hands so tightly that his knuckles had become pale and his breathing heavy.

"WOO!" Was all that came out as he let go of the blade. Elodie and Chris were both on the floor next to the beast, wide eyed and breathing nearly as heavy as Ron.

"That was pretty bad ass," Elodie looked up to Ron. Joey was approaching the group with his pistols twirling on his fingers.

"That was some good shooting Wulfechester," Ron told him.

"Just Joey is fine boss," Joey told him as he admired the kill. Joey still had one of his pistols in hand as he extended a hand to Elodie. "Good work El." She took his hand as her eyes changed to a pinkish color.

"Thanks for checking on me partner!" Chris interrupted Elodie's moment as his head poked in between them. Ron was about to chuckle when the Ursa let out a weak snarl, looking over at Chris' leg.

"Oh shit!" Joey jumped, his pistol stopped spinning and he fanned three quick shots under the beast's chin. Elodie looked down in disbelief that the monster had survived being stabbed in the chest. Ron could no longer hold back the chuckle and let out a laugh. The other three members of his team suddenly joined him.

"Say Fuchsia!" Lavender was at the side of the group, using his scroll as a camera to capture the moment of triumph for the new team.

* * *

"I thought Ozpin named the teams," Yang was poking holes in Ron's story, "and there's no way a professor let you use their weapon!"

"But Yang you've seen me use the sword!" The huntsman in front of her had a point, she knew he owned the sword but now another question was forming in her head.

"So why have I never heard of this Lavender?" Yang asked, Ron's smiling face shot into a sudden frown and she wondered what could possibly be wrong.

"I.. uh..," Ron was stuttering which seemed strange for him. He hadn't made Lavender up had he? Ron didn't seem like the kind of guy to add on to his triumphs by fluffing up his stories but his sudden lack of words left her a little doubtful. "He.. uh, he's not around anymore."

"What?" Yang was confused, "Like he's out on missions instead of teaching?" Ron hadn't gotten to answer before his scroll pinged.

"Oh no," Ron looked more worried now than sad, "Yang I gotta go.. wait a minute is Ruby still with Joey?"

"Yea why?" Yang nodded. Ron held up the scroll and she saw that it was a distress text from Joey with ' **LOCK AND LOAD'** in bold capital letters at the center of the message. Ron had used his scroll to begin tracking his teammate as the two threw a random amount of lien on the table. Somehow, without missing a beat on their way out, Ron dropped extra and picked up Yang's share handing it back to her.

"It's on me for interrupting the story!" Ron was outpacing her now when she stopped him.

"Where are you going so quick, hot shot?" She stopped him, "we came here on MY bike, remember?"

"Well if you'd hustle a little maybe I wouldn't be ready to steal your wheels, sunshine!" Ron had already called his rocket locker which landed a few feet away from Bumblebee. The young huntsman opened the locker which had his sword and assault rifle in it. He grabbed his gear as Yang mounted the bike.

"Yea right," Yang scoffed, "you couldn't handle bumblebee."

"Oh you'd be surprised what I could handle," Ron got on behind her. The blonde smirked, expecting Ron to struggle with her rough driving the way Neptune had.

"Just make sure you hang on!" She revved the bike and to her surprise Ron didn't even flinch at the sudden take off.

* * *

Elodie had barely gotten her food when she had received the distress from Joey. She was close by but she still had a few blocks to run before she got to the location itself. She'd set her rocket locker to a point halfway between her cafe and the place the distress was coming from. She'd grabbed Tempest and Flurry, her bow and collapsible quiver, but she didn't have time to change into her armor so she'd just stuffed a couple of extra dust vials into a pouch and clipped it to her jeans. She'd just reloaded the dust on her bow this morning before heading to class so she probably wouldn't need the extra. Elodie wasn't sure what to expect though, Joey never sent distress calls like this unless they were already out on a mission or he'd stumbled across something involving the White Fang. What alarmed Elodie the most was that White Fang activity in Vale was tapering off with that warehouse they'd cleared out being the last of it. What could Joey be dealing with that he'd distress call his team when he already had Weiss, Ruby and Chris with him? Elodie fired a tether arrow upward as she ran, using the momentum to carry herself up the city building. She perched herself on top of the building and looked down. The rabbit was quickly met with her answer as she saw Chris fending off a small girl in a mask and the other three that were with him injured or otherwise knocked down at the feet of a masked duals swordsman.

"Oh what have you boys gotten yourselves into this time?" She sighed as she notched an arrow, charging it with just enough lightning and ice dust to create a flash arrow like the one she had used in the warehouse.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Raine delivered a kick to Ruby's side as Weiss advanced toward him, propelled by one of her glyphs. The masked swordsman was rewarded by a pained wince from the small scythe wielder as she bounced off the alley wall. He stepped to the side, using his weapon to protect himself from Weiss' rapier. The heiress met another glyph behind him and he blocked as she passed again. Several more white glyphs appeared around him as he prepared himself for what he could only assume would be a swift assault. Instead of standing in the arena of glyphs Raine tried to jump back, only to find his feet firmly planted by a black glyph similar to those around him. His strategy had to adjust. He lifted his right sword behind him to protect himself, leading the blade away. That's when he noticed that Joey was standing and holding a shotgun sword, with the blade fully extended. "Come on then," he sighed, he needed a chance to counter attack the heiress if he wanted out of this position. Weiss came by for another pass and Raine struck her with a punch, using the handle of his weapon to load his fist with more weight as it made contact with the heiress. The glyphs broke and he turned to face the wolf faunus. A quick block defended him from a downward slash as he realized Ruby was back in the fight. He brought the handles of his blades together at the ends and they locked into place, forming a long double bladed sword. Ruby attempted to cleave him in half and he jumped up and over the weapon, blocking another slash from Joey as he flew. "I figured you were all better than this," Raine taunted them, "but what could I expect?" He was now using the double bladed sword to swipe back and forth, blocking attacks on both sides from Weiss and Joey.

Ruby lined up a shot on the masked swordsman. She pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet flew toward him, he struck the projectile away and it found a different mark as Joey was sent to the ground again. This time he was clutching his shoulder in pain. Although his aura had protected him Ruby could see the pain in his face. "Joey!" She called out as she saw that her partner was now fighting the swordsman alone.

"Ruby focus!" Weiss shouted. The white haired heiress was right. Joey would be fine. Joey staggered to his feet, still obviously affected by the poison from the deathstalker girl. The small huntress fired Crescent Rose backwards in order to close the distance between her and the swordsman. She flourished her scythe before bringing it down vertically on him. He blocked it and slid his weapon along it so that Ruby's weapon was lead into the ground, frustrating the huntress. Weiss was also clearly flustered as her glyphs and sword strikes were proving ineffective against the swordsman.

"Who is this guy?" Joey muttered in pain as his vision slowly returned to normal. The poison still burned through his body, his nerves singing in hot agony with every movement. He braced himself with Forget-Me-Not as he stood. He aimed the weapon at the swordsman's mask but did not want to risk a deflection hitting one of the girls. He staggered forward and was met with more pain sizzling through his chest and legs. Even with the poison wearing off breathing was still incredibly painful. He brought his weapon back for a powerful slash as the man parried Ruby away and used a kick to dispatch Weiss. Joey watched helplessly as his sword was also blocked, the masked man kept his sword in contact with Forget-Me-Not as he went under the blades. He was on Joey's side in a blink and as he stood upright again Joey felt a different kind of pain. This was a heavy pressure in his abdomen that was different from the poison. That's when he heard Ruby scream again. His vision blurred as he realized that his aura had been broken. The pain was unbearable at this point as his eyes darkened. He looked down and saw that the bottom sword had torn into his stomach and before he could react it was ripped out of his side, blood spraying along the alley as he staggered back and slumped against the wall at the man's feet. Ruby had rushed forward in anger as Joey's eyes drifted upward, noticing a figure on the rooftop in front of him.

 _"I'm going to kill him,"_ Ruby thought. It was a surprise to herself that she would even think that way but she'd just seen him cut her friend nearly in half, someone who had maybe even saved her life the other night. The trauma hadn't set in yet and her charge was fueled by a mix of anger and adrenaline. Ruby had not taken two steps with her new plan before being blinded by a powerful light. Once her eyes had adjusted she could hear the clanking sound of steel striking against steel in rapid succession. She could see Elodie, daggers in hand, attacking the swordsman with blinding speed. Elodie stole a glance back at Ruby.

"Help him!" Elodie cried, her eyes were a powerful red color as she continued her assault. The Beowulf barely had time to react to each strike as he broke his weapon back into two parts, each hand meeting repeatedly in high and low strikes.

"Joey are you alright?" Ruby rushed over to Joey who was still slumped over. She dropped to her knees next to him. She was answered by a weak cough of blood from the wolf, only worsening her fears about his condition. The wound was slowly closing but not nearly as fast as his wounds had in the past.

"He needs food!" Weiss was at her side now as well, "His semblance is powered by his metabolism remember?" Ruby's tunnel vision on his wounds was near deafening as she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head. She looked back at her partner.

"What was that for?" Ruby exclaimed as she noticed Weiss' hand in the air from having slapped her.

"Pay attention you dolt!" Weiss shouted, "Does he have any food on him?" Ruby began patting his pockets, searching for one of the energy bars he usually kept with him.

"Oh look," The swordsman continued to block Elodie's attacks. She was trying her hardest to keep calm and focused but the seething anger that radiated from her was making that hard. "An actual challenge, and from a faunus no less." The swordsman's voice didn't help as she found it annoying and narcissistic.

"You'll pay for this," Elodie didn't have time for clever banter with this monster. Her teammate was bleeding profusely with those other two huntresses. A teammate, a man she loved dearly. Her daggers connected into a bow and she put distance between herself and the Beowulf, firing an arrow at him. It was cut in half but she had charged it with fire dust. There was a bright orange and red explosion behind the swordsman that almost took him off balance. She notched another explosive arrow as the Beowulf rolled to the side in a dodge to avoid the explosion. She had touched him at one point and his emotions were beginning to flood toward her. No fear, no anger, just contempt. He was starting to hate her and she was looking for a reason why. Her calmness began to take over as she saw something she might be able to exploit. If she could turn that hate into anger she figured she could take the swordsman out of his element. "I sense hate in you. Hate for me, why?" Her tone was matter-of-fact, not wanting to give him the impression that she was intimidated.

"You're a faunus," he was circling her as she prepared another arrow, hesitant to fire as he continued talking. "An incredible creature! Elegant and powerful, we shouldn't serve humans!"

"Why not?" Elodie asked, trying to get her opponent to become angry at her stance on the subject.

"I guess I can't expect someone like you to understand, Elodie," the rabbit was thrown off by his use of her name. She let the arrow fly but he swatted it away, spinning in for a low strike. _"How does he know my name?"_ Elodie stopped the strike and brought her bow up to block a midsection slash as well. He feigned an attack from above but quickly dropped, sweeping her legs out from under her and kicking her into a wall. The rabbit's bow clattered to the ground as she reached out for it. He put one foot on it and placed a blade to her eye. "What a waste." His tone was matter of fact as he brought the blade back to plunge it at her.

Before he could finish her he heard the sound of boots followed by the sight of two girls charging him. Weiss' glyphs powering her forward first as she struck out at him. With relative ease he struck the heiress away and then slashed across her back, hard enough that her aura faltered and a small cut appeared in the back of her coat, bisecting her family's emblem. Ruby was next, her scythe being knocked up into the air as he spun with a powerful roundhouse across her cheek. Her head bounced off of the alley wall as the swordsman stood triumphant over the huntresses. Elodie watched in horror as the monster walked back toward her, her bow still out of reach. Her plan was to reach for the bow quickly, roll away from him and put an arrow between his shoulder and arm to stop his attacks. She never got the chance as the sound of a motorcycle pulling into the alley stopped her.

"Hey!" Ron dismounted the bike with his rifle already trained on the beowulf's mask, "step away from my partner!" He began firing at the swordsman who blocked as he approached Ron and Yang. The Beowulf prepared to strike out at Ron but was met with an explosion at his feet from a blast of Yang's gauntlets. Yang's eyes were still their regular lilac color but she was obviously angry at the sight of her sister and Weiss being hurt. The swordsman seemed distracted by the explosion because he hadn't seen Ron become airborne. Ron's boots extended out through the dissipating smoke in a powerful dropkick. Both boots connected with the mask, sending the swordsman flying onto his back for the first time in the fight. He recovered quickly as Ron landed, drawing Grimm Reminder from its place on his back. Elodie's leader held the blade in a ready position as the swordsman stood, regarding him with a stance of his own. He adjusted his Beowulf mask to make sure it was still properly fixed as he dashed forward, his blades meeting Ron's larger sword with a deafening clang. The blades grinded against each other as Ron began to feed his aura into Grimm Reminder. Elodie reached out now that her bow was free, deftly maneuvering up and behind her target. She brought an arrow back and let it fly. The projectile was swatted away by a sword swipe, the masked man barely regarding Elodie as he continued to lock blades with her leader. She drew back two arrows on her bow this time, charging them with fire dust.  
"Ron incoming!" She shouted at her partner. She let loose and the man ducked under the arrows, sending them directly at Ron. Elodie's partner had read the scenario the same as she had, creating a barrier with his semblance in a cone facing the beowulf. The cone caught both arrows and the resulting explosion was funneled in his direction. He blocked the explosion by placing his swords in an X formation but it did not stop him from flying backwards where Elodie had been waiting. She struck out with her blades against his aura, scoring the first hit on his back and following it up with slash across his chest as she spun around the airborne swordsman. He landed with a skid on his feet and dropped to one knee. He began to stand as he noticed that Joey had braced himself against the wall, his shotgun clumsily aimed at the beowulf's mask.

Chris blocked another strike from the deathstalker at the wrist. Krystal grunted angrily as she tried to plant one of her blades into him. He had been keeping her daggers at bay while also using himself to keep her separated from the other hunters fighting Raine. Between strikes she had noticed that the gunslinger she had poisoned was beginning to recover, a sight she wasn't used to seeing. She'd lost focus on the fight and received the full force of her opponents gloved fist to her mask. Even through her aura and mask she could feel the heavy impact of his large fist. Something had changed in her opponent since the beginning of the fight. His blows were coming harder and faster than the attempted strikes he had made when he first began blocking. At first he was slow, striking out in intervals after blocking several of her attacks. Now he was pushing her back, using his aura to glance stabs off of himself while forcing her to block or dodge. Krystal recovered from the punch and ducked under a second. She lashed out at his abdomen but he dashed backwards, a fireball appearing between them that forced Krystal to roll away. Now Chris was coming back toward her as she spun with an attempt to stab his exposed side. The large man struck her forearm with his which she acknowledged with a wince underneath her mask. Aura or not there was an impact between their bones and she felt it. She looked into his eyes as she rebounded off of him. There was another change now, a look in his eyes that she recognized. At that moment Krystal knew that he'd kill her if she gave him the chance.

Raine's frustration mounted as he realized there was no real way he could defeat all of them on his own. _"Krystal I can't believe I let you talk me into this_ ," he cursed his partner who had yet to kill or even harm the largest member of Joey's team. _"Adam just wanted us to spy on Blake's new team for him._ " His thoughts weren't going to reach her but at least it wasn't entirely his fault that their cover was blown. He stole a glance at his partner and noticed that Chris had finally gone on the offensive, using a powerful knee to lift the small girl off of the ground. Chris did not get to finish his attack before the blonde from Blake's team had gotten inbetween them. The fiery fighter delivered a single haymaker to his partner as the deathstalker girl was sent flying toward him. Her body slammed into his with a painful thud. The both of them bounced off of the alley wall and Raine stood up quickly as the others closed in on him.

"Just put down your weapons," Ron commanded with his assault rifle trained on the beowulf's head. Yang had stepped up next to him, one of her gauntlets prepared to deliver another explosive shot to the two assassins. Elodie had joined them and Joey had limped over, holding his side with his shotgun in his free hand. Blood was seeping through his hands and Ron knew they needed to end this as fast as possible if Joey was going to heal up properly. Chris' eyes had taken on a look that Ron had rarely seen in the big guy. His eyes had narrowed in on the two attackers and he removed his red gloves, revealing that his knuckles had been wrapped in fighter's tape. The tape had begun to glow with a bluish-purple shine as he charged the dust within them. Ron could see it in Chris' eyes, he intended to end these two. Had Elodie not been standing right next to him Ron may have let him but he knew his partner. The whole team knew Elodie wouldn't stand to see them execute these people, regardless of who they were.

"Chris," Elodie reached out to him as the tape became brighter. "Do we really need to..." That's when the beowulf moved, Ron tried to pull the trigger but the swordsman was fast. His gun was aimed at a pipe above Ron's head which exploded when three bullets from the swordsman's weapons struck it. Water spewed all over the alley, washing away some of the blood as it landed. The leader of FWCS was confused as he attempted to pull the trigger. Before the weapon went off something heavy struck him from behind. He hit the floor and looked over to see that the rest of his team had a similar thing happen to them except Chris. The large fighter had turned to meet the new attacker but all Ron could see was a large cloud of mist around his teammate. Ron checked behind him and found a large tentacle of water swaying back and forth. He tried to jump up but the tentacle whipped forward, knocking him up and against the wall. He looked to the two attackers and noticed that Chris had moved out of the mist and toward them. Striking out with his glowing fists Chris was fighting both of them at once.

"Krystal," The beowulf called to his partner in a low voice, Ron felt a little shaky from the hit he had taken but he thought he heard a shaking in the swordsman's voice. "We need to leave." He dismissed it as he tried standing up, only to be choked by one of the water tentacles and lifted. The swordsman placed a sword to Ron's stomach as he struggled and grasped at his throat. Chris had backed the deathstalker against the wall, putting more holes into the walls behind her as she barely dodged his strikes. He wrapped a hand around her neck, lifting her against the wall. She lashed out with her daggers only to have them swatted away with his free hand, after blocking the strikes he delivered subsequent blows to her inner arms that caused them to drop the blades. The chains swung back and forth as he brought his fist back and looked over to Ron.

"Let her go," the beowulf threatened Chris by moving his sword closer to Ron's stomach. Unknown to the swordsman Ron had begun hardening his aura near the tip of the blade. He could see in Chris' eyes that he was ready to kill the deathstalker if the assassins didn't back down. Before Chris could make another move there was an explosion from behind Ron that caused the watery appendage around his throat to sizzle and steam. It had lost its grip and Ron dropped, the blade closing in on him as he fell. His hardened aura blocked it and he spun as a yellow flash blew past him.

Yang's aura was on fire and Ron stumbled back by the force she created from going forward. Raine blocked only to have one of his weapons knocked to the floor. The onslaught from the water had activated her semblance and she was pursuing the beowulf with a vengeance. With only one weapon now he ducked and weaved in order to get back to his other sword. Ron kicked it away and met his single sword with the barrel of his assault rifle. Ron led Raine's sword down and brought the stock of his rifle up to strike him. The water had begun to lose form as it stopped striking the other students. Raine spun and Yang's fist met him with a powerful, angry strike that sent him flying into the wall of the alley. His body screamed in pain now as the bricks in the wall were damaged by the impact of him bouncing off. He struggled to his feet, looking toward Chris who had lost his grip on the deathstalker.

Chris tried to grab at the deathstalker as she broke free of his grip. He'd given serious thought to killing her in order to keep the others safe but the way she struggled told him she was on the retreat. She flipped away from the large fighter, her feet catching his face as she flew. He quickly recovered but not before she was at her partner's side. The two fist fighters were both prepared to launch another attack when a wall of water shot up to defend them. Chris and Yang still fired, Chris's projectile was a purple ball of plasma while Yang's was another one of her gauntlet's fireballs. The impact of the flaming projectiles created one final plume of steam that enveloped the alley. Chris searched for any movement in the cloud with another plasma ball ready to fly from his dust wrapped hands. He heard Krystal and Raine collect themselves and the sound of boots running followed. The echoes died as they moved away from him and Yang. Chris was about to give chase when his thoughts returned to him. He quickly deactivated the dust in his bandages, revealing that parts of the bandages had burned up during their use. His red gloves were easily slipped back on and he used the infused wind dust to clear away the already disappearing steam. Joey stumbled over to the girl but Yang beat him to her. Ruby was shaken up as she braced herself on the wall.

Chris noticed that Weiss' back had been injured. He quickly approached the girl whose white jacket had been partially stained with blood from the small cut she sustained across her back. The heiress soon stood, unaware of the cut as she seethed with anger at her attackers. "Weiss you're bleeding?" Chris told her bluntly, looking at her back and double checking that the wound was only a minor scratch.

"What where?" She said as she realized her aura wasn't activating to heal her.

"We should get you checked out," He told her as he inspected it. It was mostly superficial but if her aura wasn't healing it she should probably seek some kind of medical attention. Almost as if in agreement with him Chris heard his partner exclaim something but he was even more worried hearing it now than he had been at the sight of Weiss' back.

Joey had finally gotten one of the energy bars out of his pocket. The wrapper had fresh blood on it that caused his hands to slip a bit as he tore it open. He shoved the nutritional square in his mouth, chewing through the dirt like taste he'd grown accustomed too. He had finally convinced Chris to add a bit of cocoa t the mix to offset the dirt flavor but it hadn't done much to truly mask it. His stumble toward Ruby became steadier with his strength returning when he noticed Ruby slowly pacing toward him.

"Hey sis," Yang told her, looking her little sister over for any serious wounds, "take it slow."

"Joey he nearly ripped you in half," Joey was flattered by the girl's concern for anybody but herself but that feeling was instantly killed by a combination of events. He'd seen Ruby trip, falling toward him as he caught her. The next thing he noticed was an iron smell mixed in with the strawberry scent that usually accompanied the small huntress. The side of her head that had been facing the wall turned towards him as he dropped with her to stop her from hitting the ground. That same side of her head had a small amount of blood coming down from it, matting the black and red hair that was there and travelling down her cheek.

"We need to get her back to Beacon now," Joey told them all, her sister's face expressed the same horrified feeling in his gut but he knew better. He kept as calm as he could despite the overwhelming anger he felt toward the assassins. "Scroll!" He pointed toward his scroll that was still on the alley floor but Ron was already doing what he had thought. Ron's scroll was already against his ear as he shouted directions at a local driver Joey kept near the main city of Vale and Elodie was calling ahead for an emergency bullhead to transport the teams up the cliff side that led back to the school.

Ron had become used to seeing people wounded, mostly from seeing Joey cut, stabbed or bitten by Grimm but he had also become used to Joey healing. Ruby couldn't just heal and the stress of it was bearing down on Yang horribly. The blonde was pacing back and forth in front of him. Were it not for his concern over her younger sister he'd have been able to appreciate how beautiful she was, worried, angry or laughing. Ron couldn't hold onto the thought as he looked over to his teammates. Elodie and Chris were off to the side of the room. The rabbit was worried about Chris' approach during the fight. Weiss and Blake were there as well along with another faunus who Ron hadn't met yet. A blonde monkey who Blake had called Sun. Ron snapped back up to Yang as he swallowed, finding the courage to speak. "Yang," the blonde turned to him, her face a confusing mix of anger and worry still. "Your sister is going to be ok, she's not in surgery or the ICU." His inner leader was overpowering his caring friend voice but it was having some effect on her.

"You're right," Yang almost smiled but was obviously unable to shake her feelings of worry. "But I should have been there! I'm her big sister. I'm supposed to protect her." Ron gestured to the seat she had been sitting in before she began pacing.

"Please try to calm down," his tone finally finding a comfortable level to soothe her, "the doctors are looking at her now and she's still breathing so her aura is going to kick in soon." Yang hadn't stopped her pacing and Ron was beginning to worry for her nearly as much as she worried for Ruby. That's when he saw Joey behind her, motioning his eyes upward toward the blonde in an obvious manner. Ron sighed, knowing what the wolf was telling him, he stood and the blonde looked at him. They were roughly the same height and when she was fully facing him he pulled her into a hug "she'll be ok." He told her as she began to breathe, "we raced there as quickly as we could and you probably saved her life as well as everyone else's with your driving."

"And you managed not to fall off," Yang let out a light chuckle as she backed out of the hug looking at him. His choice to compliment her on her erratic driving of all things had worked out for him.

"I had a good reason to hang on," he took his hands off of her slowly, partially regretting that he had to let go. "So does Ruby."

"You two need a room?" Joey joked at his teammate. Ron scowled down at the wolf faunus. He'd told Joey about his attraction to Yang and was slightly regretting it.

"Not like I have a forest to go walking in," Ron shot back with a condescending tone accompanied by a smirk. Yang looked irritated at his joke about Ruby's last trip with Joey as she turned to the wolf.

"That reminds me," She picked Joey up by the collar so that he was standing now.

"Woah!" Ron exclaimed.

"Hey now blondie it was a joke," Joey said defensively as Yang's next move took him off guard. She wrapped her arms around the gunslinger in a powerful bear hug, some of his bones had even popped as she begun squeezing harder.

"Weiss told me how you didn't stay down even with the poison in your system," Yang almost let him go and then squeezed him harder than before, "thanks."

"Not a problem," Joey squeaked as she finally let him go. He looked over her shoulder and saw one of the nurses stepping out of the hallway were Ruby's room was. "Blondie behind you." Joey stepped away from her as her arms moved away from him. Yang rushed toward the nurse, a graying elderly woman whose walk was slow.

"How is she?" Yang asked, she'd looked ready to just stampede over the old woman and rush straight into the room. "Can I see her?"

"Ms. Rose is going to make a full recovery," the nurse's tone was slow and deliberate, "but she's resting right now. After the doctor found no signs of concussion he had her put on bed rest so we can monitor her over night to ensure her aura comes back to speed along the recovery."

"So I can see her?" Yang smiled as she began to walk past the nurse who promptly grabbed the blonde's wrist.

"No," the nurse's tone was flat, "she's on bed rest! She needs to sleep for now. Once she wakes up we'll be sure to notify you." Yang looked back at her angrily.

"I'm her sister," Yang stated, "I am going to be there when she wakes up."

"Uh huh," the nurse walked past her, "room's off limits while Ms. Rose rests, those are the doctor's orders and they're final." Yang let out a sound of dismay as she turned and stormed out of the infirmary. Ron looked at her and back to Joey.

"If those eyes move one more time you better hope they can regenerate," Ron snapped at his teammate who laughed at him.

"Alright alright," Joey backed down, "but you are going after her right?"

"Well yea," Ron told him, "of course I'm gonna go after her." It was silent as Joey took his seat looking up at his leader who was just standing there looking down at him. Joey pulled out his scroll, looking at the screen for a moment before his gaze returned to Ron.

"I hadn't planned on having my eyes torn out today but, uhh," Joey spoke up after a few more moments as his eyes motioned toward Yang to let Ron know that he should be going.

"Right," Ron turned to follow Yang out of the infirmary and down the hall, "I'll see you later."

"Good luck boss," Joey offered his support as his eyes fell back on his scroll.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Joey sat next to Ruby's hospital bed. He'd woke her up when he had snuck into the room but noticing that Yang was not there the small girl had elected to sleep while she still could. Yang had gone with Ron to work the anger out of her system and Joey was just glad that he wasn't on the receiving end of it. He'd been going over the fight in his head. Planning what he would have done differently, what he would do different in the future. The poison was still a light burning sensation in his nerves but it was nothing compared to his worries for the small huntress that lay before him. He'd become too comfortable shaking off hits with his semblance and now Ruby had paid for it. Joey couldn't shake the feeling that if he'd dodged the blade or blocked it somehow he would have had the energy and coordination to protect her.

"Protect me?" That last thought must have slipped out of his mouth without him noticing because one of Ruby's eyes had peaked open and was looking at him, "first I beat you during our competition in Forever Fall and this time I had to fight off an assassin to protect _you_. I'd say it's starting to look like you owe me Joey." Her soft voice was teasing to him but it didn't alleviate the guilt he was feeling. The only consolation he had was that her teasing had caused a smile to appear on his lips as he tilted his head.

"Guess I'll have to get you back next time," He tried to inject a little bit of his new found happiness into his speech but the way Ruby looked up at him had proven that he had failed.

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked him, both of her eyes opening now, a slight wince played through her eyelids as she blinked and squinted upward. "Oh I'm going to hate these lights."

"Doc said you'd be fine," Joey told her, "but I wanted to hear it from you myself... so how are you feeling?" He moved his seat a little closer to the bed now that she was awake.

"I have a bit of a headache," her left hand reached up to shield her silver eyes from the lights overhead. "The bright lights aren't really helping though."

"On the brightside you didn't get nearly cut in half," Joey invoked the words she had used when stumbling toward him in the alley as he motioned down toward his torn dress shirt and vest as he moved his frock back, revealing that the part of his ribs and stomach that had been torn by the Beowulf's sword had fully healed. He was lucky enough that the out coat could cover the cut.

"I would kill for your semblance right now," Ruby she groaned as she shut her eyes, obviously irritated by the lights. His hand reached out to hers, resting on it gently.

"Hell I'd trade you if I could," he said softly with a chuckle, "speed like yours could come in handy." His voice had finally let go of a little of the worry and guilt that had plagued it before now that he could see it was just a headache. He still wanted to kill the assassin that had done this to them. Minor wounds or not that masked swordsman had hurt people Joey cared about, most importantly Ruby who the wolf had become quite fond of. That's when a new thought crossed the faunus' mind. Did she know that? _"Hunter lives are fast paced, and FWCS may be on a faster track than others with the way you go after the White Fang. Maybe you oughta say something to her before you go gettin' yourself all shot up again."_ He spoke to himself in his head. The amount of time it took for him to form the next set of words he was going to speak earned him a confused look from the small huntress as his hand found a more solid place over hers than just touching finger tips. "You know Ruby I..."

Joey was interrupted by the sound of a cane on the infirmary floor before he'd seen the person who accompanied it or the people who were with them. "Joey?" Her voice was quizzical as it dawned on Joey that she couldn't hear the cane. Professor Ozpin opened the door to Ruby's room and stepped inside, his face calm and amiable as always. It was a stark contrast to the scowl held on the pale face of Glynda Goodwitch. There was a third person with them that the wolf faunus had recognized from several of his family's events. Joey shot up from the chair he had been sitting in, releasing Ruby's hand, so that he could greet General Ironwood.  
"Hello General," he regarded his superiors, "professors." His tone was respectful as he walked around Ruby's bed and extended a hand to Ironwood. The general took his hand in a firm grip. Joey realized all too late that Ironwood's appearance in the infirmary had nothing to do with his family's business as Goodwitch cleared her throat in an obvious manner.  
" ," she began in her usual stern tone, "what do you think you're doing here? This room is off limits. Not to mention the fact that you put these girls in danger taking on White Fang assassins in broad daylight!" The scolding barely registered to Joey as he focused on keeping a cool expression in front of Ironwood.  
"Now Glynda," Ozpin stopped her. This was somehow familiar to Joey and he knew why. This sounded like the same lecture she had tried giving FWCS after their first mission, a lecture Ozpin realized they weren't ready for. "Why don't we start by asking for his side of what happened?" Joey looked to his headmaster who gave him an assuring nod.  
"They attacked Weiss first and I reacted," Joey explained the fight, the poison, how he had called his team for back up and how the two attackers had escaped.  
"You did the right thing," Ironwood reassured him, "however we would appreciate it if you could keep this from the public, even your fellow students."  
"What good'll that do us?" Joey had a feeling where they were taking this but he had to be sure.

"Why does he need to hide it?" Ruby asked her headmaster. Joey's display to the General had nearly overshadowed the purpose of the headmasters coming to the hospital wing.

"Ah Ms. Rose," Ozpin greeted her, "I was hoping we could have held this conversation with you first but Mr. Wulfechester is also present so there's no use in having to tell everyone individually."  
"Do you two remember Roman Torchwick?" Ironwood retrieved his scroll from his jacket pocket. Ruby adjusted the bed so that she could sit up straight. The younger hunters nodded at their superior as he continued. "When Team RWBY and the others captured him the public was convinced that the White Fang had abandoned whatever they had been doing in Vale. We want to keep it that way."

"With the festival coming up and this peace that Vale is experiencing Grimm activity near the city has begun to lessen," Ozpin interjected, "Even the Forest of Forever Fall is seeing less activity other than a few beowulves that are scanners seemed to have lost track of." Joey looked over to Ruby who winked at him slyly before he could. He smiled to himself as he noticed the girl picking up on his habits.

"The bottom line is," Ironwood moved to end the thought, "the festival is scheduled to start in less than a month and with the White Fang removed from Vale the council wouldn't dare postpone it any longer."

"And as you're both aware the festival is important," Ozpin finished for the general, "not only to Vale but all the kingdoms of Remnant. Which is why we want to keep this amongst ourselves. That is all. Now why don't we let Ms. Rose rest a while. General Ironwood has something important he would like to speak with you about, in private." Joey tilted his head in confusion but moved to accommodate the headmaster's request. As they began to leave he turned and stopped at Ruby's bed once more.

"What were you going to tell me?" Her eyes pleaded to him as he hesitated.

"I'll have to tell you later," he placed a hand on hers, "but if you need anything at all I'm just a scroll call away." He pointed to her scroll which rested on the stand next to her bed. She nodded.

"Thanks Joey," her smile was genuine and he smiled back, he had begun to lean forward slowly as one of the professors behind him cleared her throat. Goodwitch's attitude was unmistakable as his body shifted and turned to leave.

* * *

Yang's breathing had almost become a hiss through her gritted teeth. She had barely heard the footsteps behind her as she was lost in her anger. "Yang," Ron was calling out to her. She had kind of wanted to be alone to just blow off the steam but FWCS' leader had followed her. Before snapping at him she remembered how he had worked to comfort her in the waiting room and turned to him with a question instead.

"Who does she think she is?" She asked, seething. "I'm Ruby's big sister. The most immediate family she has here at Beacon! How am I not allowed in there to see my sister?"

"It's just the doctor's orders," Ron told her again, "it's nothing personal I'm sure. Here," Ron held his hands up openly. "Why don't we work this out between us huh?"

"What?" She was confused, Ron was holding his hands up as though he was a boxing trainer.

"Hit me," Ron's face held a slight smirk, "I do this with Joey sometimes when he's pissed off about something." The young man's eyes drifted a little bit to the side "Although he sometimes punches with bullets."

"I'm not gonna hit you," her anger melted a bit as it was replaced with the thought of Ron flying back twenty feet if she hit him. She stifled a chuckle.

"Come on," Ron dragged out the last syllable, daring the blonde to strike him. "how hard could it be?"

"Pretty hard considering you're not the one I'm mad at," she scoffed.

"Just close your eyes and remember that nurse telling you that you can't see your sister," Ron gestured his hands up. Yang sighed, her eyelids closing over crimson eyes as she readied her hands. She thought back to that nurse, although the vision was a little different in her head. There was no nurse, just that swordsman in the alley who had hurt Ruby. He was standing over the injured huntress, a blade raised. Before the thought could progress her eyes shot open and she let one punch fly, Ember Celica remaining dormant on her wrist as her hand flew forward. It stopped before meeting with Ron's open palm, causing a shimmer of green energy along a wall of what seemed like jade stained glass. Realizing Ron hadn't so much as flinched besides the ripples in the aura wall she let a second punch fly.

"They hurt her!" She yelled at him, "they hurt my sister! My teammate!" Her fists were flying consistently into his aura now. The first thing she noted was that her fists felt like they were hitting a punching bag rather than a wall. Her thoughts flew around as she continued her flurry. She thought about what she would do to the swordsman, what she would have given to protect her sister, how Ron would risk a punch from her to help her. "We should have gotten there faster. I know what you said but I could have gone faster, we could have..." Her fist met the wall and she stopped, her eyes returning to their usual color. "We've been over this."

"We have," Ron nodded as his aura dropped back onto his body.

"So why make me relive it?" She asked breathing heavily.

"Because hearing it and dealing with it in your mind isn't always the best way," Ron told her, "I've known Joey for a while and sometimes a hot head just needs to let off a little steam."

"Hey I'm not that hot headed," Yang tried to defend herself.

"You sure about that?" He pointed out. She thought about it for a second and sighed in defeat. "It's a good thing. That hot headedness makes you effective." This time he placed a hand on her shoulder to reassure her, looking directly into her eyes as he said it. His confidence relaxed her as she let go of her anger, rewarding Ron with a soft look from her usual lilac eyes.

* * *

Azule stamped toward the mission boards in Beacon's main hall with his partner, Ray Stewart, in tow. "Sharkbait I don't think this is gonna work," Ray tried to slow his partner down. Azule's march didn't let up as they approached the terminals.

"Mason said if we can find a mission back home we can return for a bit before the tournament," Azule hadn't slowed as he approached it, "I need to swim."

"There are docks in town!" Ray pointed out. His hand had gestured in the direction he thought town to be as they stood in Beacon's main hall.

"The water isn't the same," Azule countered as Ray placed his head on his temples. Azule had been feeling homesick for days but the rest of the team had just tried to talk him down from it every time it was brought up, which was at least three times a day. Mason had finally buckled and offered this idea to Azule but Ray knew the headmasters wouldn't allow it. As Azule stopped at the mission board he scrolled through the options, setting Vacuo missions as search parameters he quickly scrolled through.

"This is ridiculous," "Ray tried to reason with the aquatic faunus. "Missions are off limits to students right now anyways! Even if you found one they wouldn't let us take it."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that ," the voice was accompanied by the steady tapping of a cane. It belonged to Beacon's headmaster, Ozpin. The older huntsman stood behind them as Azule slowly moved his hands away from the mission board turning, along with his partner, to face the headmaster.

"Huh?" Ray seemed confused.

"I know of a mission that would take you back to the shores of Vacuo but it wouldn't be easy," the headmaster spoke kindly to them with a tone that told Ray he was confident in the student's abilities. Azule's eyes lit up with excitement as he heard the professor.

"Sir you aren't seriously thinking..." He shot a glance back to his shadow, Professor Goodwitch who had been following him from wherever it was they had come. She ceased whatever protest she was about to make as he continued.

"And I would not allow you to make this journey alone," Ozpin explained to them, "Glynda if you would be so kind as to send a message to Mr. Feldgaunt of team FWCS that his team is being requested to assist team Maroon of Shade in a mission to Vacuo."

"Sir I...," he glanced at her once more and she sighed. "Yes sir." Goodwitch opened her scroll and walked off in the direction of her own office in order to compose the message.

"Team FWCS?" Ray breathed questioningly.

"Isn't that the team who lost...?" Azule's eyes had gone from excitement to anxious fear as he began to question Ozpin's choice.

"They are a capable team who will speed along the mission in order to get all eight of you home in time for the tournament," Ozpin smiled as he retrieved his own scroll to assign the mission to both teams. "Enjoy your trip," Ozpin paused as he smiled once again at Azule, "and good luck." With this he turned, using his cane to walk once again as strode back toward his office.

"Lost what?" Ray looked down at his partner, wondering what the fish knew that he didn't.

* * *

Elodie had gone back to Team FWCS' dorm room in order to rest on her bed. She had been lying awake for most of the time, unable to sleep as she thought back to her fight with the Beowulf masked swordsman. He knew her name but up until that warehouse she'd never shown her face to the White Fang. Unless they had tracked her based on her weapon. It was a likely explanation but in order to know the specifics they would either need a spy inside Beacon or access to Beacon's records. Either way her musings, and spinning thoughts, were interrupted by Ron bursting into the room with Chris following close behind. He had an unusually serious look on his face. "What happened now?" She asked.

"Oh you know the usual we get in trouble with the White Fang so Ozpin puts us on a punishment assignment," Ron was searching for something underneath his bed, "now where did I leave my D203 attachment for Lanius!"

"What's the assignment?" Elodie asked as she pointed to the rarely used closet. As Ron opened it he found a case haphazardly tossed into the small space. It was sparsely populated with extra shirts that belonged to Elodie as well as the dress she hadn't gotten to use at the Festival Ball because FWCS had been sent to cover CFVY during their mission when they hadn't come back in time to plan the dance. She shook the off topic thought as her eyes moved from the bag that contained the dress. The concern had begun to set in as she waited for Ron's answer.

"Read it big guy," Ron tossed his open scroll to Chris who was caught off guard by the device flying toward him. He had managed to catch it before it fell and straightened it into his hands, his eyes squinting down into the screen.

"Dear Mr. Feldgaunt," Chris began as Ron opened the case. He pulled out a triggered tube. Elodie recognized it as a gift Joey had given him shortly before their first mission. A D203 Dust Grenade launcher made to replace the bayonet on Ron's assault rifle. "Professor Ozpin and I are glad that no one was fatally injured during your team's most recent run in with the White Fang. While the headmaster always appreciates the intel your extracurricular activities bring along with them, we have told you numerous times to allow graduated hunters to deal with the White Fang and to focus on your studies." Chris' tone took on an exasperated mood as he droned through the rest. "As an aid to get team FWCS focused back on slaying Grimm we are dispatching you along with team MARN from Shade to exterminate a nest of Grimm on the shores of Vacuo. You will be airlifted to Oar's Rest, a port town in Vacuo. There you are to assist team MARN in eradicating any and all Grimm that plague the area. Azule Beryl is the top of his class in dealing with aquatic Grimm however the town's inland side has also seen an influx of Deathstalker attacks. Team MARN has requested to take on this mission and Professor Ozpin is requesting that your team accompany them in order to return in time to participate in the Vytal Festival Tournament. Good Luck, Glynda Goodwitch."

"But why?" Elodie rolled onto her back in irritation, "what if those assassins come back for team RWBY?"

"I know," Ron sighed, "on the bright side Yang will probably destroy that guy next time she sees him. You guys should have seen how close she came to breaking one of my projections."

"Wait where is Joey?" Chris asked as he looked to Elodie, "He's going to want to prep a lot of gear once he hears that we're going after a nest. Remember when they sent us after Coco?"

"Anyone seen where Sunflower's explosive rounds have gotten off too?" Elodie mocked Joey's accent.

"And where'd y'all but my pocket knife?" Ron joined her, "I swear Ron if you lost another one I'll shove my next one where the sun..." Ron was interrupted by the sound of his scroll ringing. It was a heavy metal song that accompanied Joey's face on the screen of his scroll. Chris answered the call while simultaneously pressing the speaker button.

"Where are you man?" Ron asked "we're in the dorm waiting."

"We need to talk," Joey's voice held a familiar harshness that was usually accompanied by bad news.

"You can tell me on the way back home," Ron told him, "their shipping us off to Vacuo in the morning."

"O' course they are," Joey sighed into the receiver, creating a static filled mess as the breathe ended, "meet you in the dorm in thirty."

"Thirty?" Elodie shot up, "Even from the other side of campus you'd get here in at least fifteen, Joey where are you?"

"Ironwood's ship," the team all glanced around at each other, "see y'all soon." Joey ended the call, leaving his team to ponder what exactly Joey was doing up there.

* * *

As Joey and General Ironwood approached the main office of the airship Joey was stopped by two of the Atlesian Knight-200s. The tall machines' visors fell down to his waist. "Surrender your weapons before entering General Ironwood's office," one of the machines told him as it extended a single hand to Joey. The faunus frowned as he looked down toward his pistols.

"General Ironwood," Joey bit down on the nervousness that was mounting within his throat as he fought for the strength to say the next statement, "my mother carried these pistols into every meeting she ever attended and I intend to do the same." The wolf knew that he'd either be reprimanded by Atlas' headmaster, stripped of his weapons or laughed off the airship. To his surprise none of these things happened.

"He can keep the pistols," Ironwood's hand waved off the knights as they resumed an upright stance outside of the office. The doors slid open automatically, allowing Ironwood passage through the portal.

Joey watched the general as the towering figure sauntered around his desk toward the window at the end of the room. General Ironwood's office aboard his airship was a contrast to Ozpin's darker office. The walls were a pale white that led to the large window that framed the entire room in light from the outside sky. From that segmented window Joey could see down toward Beacon as well as the floating Amity Colosseum. Before he could get lost in the awe inspiring view his brain shot back to his upbringing as he focused on the General who was now motioning for Joey to join him by the window. "General Ironwood, sir," Joey swallowed nervously. He felt out of place as he removed his hat from his head as a sign of respect. Even though the general had taken his side on the pistols Joey felt as though he was still subject to any number of judgments from Ironwood. He was off balance, nervousness was not something he liked to let dominate his approach but with his company's reputation slowly becoming worse he had a feeling that Ironwood didn't call him up to the airship to discuss the attack on Weiss. "What am I doing up here?" This last question was caught in limbo between Joey's usual confidence and the losing battle he was fighting with his own nerves.

"Stand with me," Ironwood's attitude was inviting as Joey placed his hat on the genrera's desk and stepped to join him, looking down along the surface of the airship below the window. " ," Ironwood's voice took on a formal tone that Joey had heard often during a time when his parents were still alive. That tone was almost enough to force Joey to stand at attention before the general. Instead he took a relaxed stance by window as he continued to look around the sky, his hands finding a resting place in his gunbelt. "Your headmaster tells me that you're one of the most effective weaponsmiths in your class and I would agree after seeing some of the things you've designed for ." Ironwood's reference to some of the attachments and equipment Joey had designed for Viridi Lanius, his leader's assault rifle, strengthed his confidence with a smirk that tugged at his lips.

"Thank you sir," Joey kept his response short with his mouth closing quickly over his fangs as he spoke. His family had spent a lot of time in business meetings hiding their faunus heritage in order to be taken seriously and had passed this technique onto him at an early age. It was an alien feeling to him now and he knew his actions must have been obvious to Atlas' commander and headmaster.

"But you haven't stopped there have you?" Ironwood asked and Joey froze as their eyes met. "Argent Silverback, the CEO of your company, has informed me that you have also contributed to your company's most recent program. I believe he called it the Wilhelm Initiative." Joey's stark silence was both a response of shock but also an invitation for the general to continue. "A program originally proposed to me by your mother almost seven ago, but I rejected it and she began to seek alternative resources for her project." The general paused, inviting Joey to confirm what he was telling him but Joey responded in silence. He wanted the general to continue making his point. Joey didn't need to hear Ironwood regurgitate past events for him to understand why he had rejected her. "Unfortunately, the plans never reached the development stage because of an attack made by two humans who were convinced that your company was aiding the White Fang.. and now eight years later your company has found the funds, materials, and testing grounds for such an operation. Would you mind explaining to me how this came to be?" Joey tilted his head in curiosity. The general obviously had all of this information at his finger tips.

"You already know how," Joey responded as politely as he could while still asserting that Ironwood knew the information.

"I've read news articles and field reports," Ironwood's stance was unchanging as his head swiveled to look at the wolf faunus standing next to him. "But none of them contain a single statement from you. I want to hear the reasons why you continued to pursue this course of action." Joey took in a deep breath. Between his time at Beacon and the things his mother had taught him he was feeling conflicted. With Professor Ozpin he was able to speak freely but he was no longer in front of Ozpin. Before he was born Atlas and the military of Mantle had been business partners with Wulfechester Arms but those contracts ceased when his mother had taken over the company. His mother's meeting with Ironwood had been the last attempt at a military contract Wulfechester Arms had tried. Everything was in the private sector and now Joey could sense an opening at a new contract that could open new doors for his company, financially and in the public eye. Before he could speak another thought crossed his mind. His mother didn't want a military contract, she wanted their help so that she could help the citizens of Remnant.

"I.." The sound came as a surprise to Joey before he began to speak again. "My mother had a vision for the citizens of Remnant. She had seen huntsmen and huntresses at work but there was something important that she had noticed. It wasn't that the hunters were ineffective, they did a damn good job according to her. The problem was response times. A hunter needs to be hired, prepped and dispatched before they can begin saving the day." There it was again, the falter between formality and the way he was used to speaking in front of Ozpin. He shook it off and continued, Ironwood wanted a statement and Joey was becoming determined to give him one. "She decided that the people waiting to be saved needed a way defend themselves. The problem was finding an R&D team to design a cheap weapon that would get the job done. Atlas' Spider droids would never go on loan to small towns and the patent meant we couldn't just make our own so it seemed like we were stuck at the drawing board. Someone once suggested to her that she mass produce these," Joey pointed a finger to his Snapdragons, "but that didn't take off. .45 Long is good for soft skinned Grimm, even some older Beowulves have been dropped by these pistols, but they needed weapons that didn't recoil as heavily. What the company needed was a reliable rifle that would compensate for the recoil, was overall easy to learn, and could be made on the cheap." These three points were accented by Joey counting them off on his right hand one by one. He hadn't taken notice of the General's impressed smile as he began to fall into his own passion for weapon design. "This is where I came in. After my ma and pa passed I threw myself into my studies and weapon designs." This was a lie. Joey had also thrown himself into several White Fang encampments, blaming them for what had happened to his parents. "I eventually began looking at low cost materials and designed the Wulfechester Arms Wilhelm Repeater Model 16, or WR-16 for short. The WR-16 is a semi-automatic rifle designed to fire .308 armor piercing rounds designed to kill juvenile Grimm and ward off older Grimm. It won't kill a Deathstalker or a Nevermore but it'll take down some younger Ursa and just about any other average sized Grimm. The weapon is not designed to turn townsfolk into huntsmen, just to give them a chance while they wait for the good guys to arrive." Joey's breathing was slightly elevated. Regardless of the circumstances that had led to the weapon's design he was extremely proud of the WR-16. It was the first weapon he had designed on his own and the first one he built still sat in his adoptive father's office above an ornate mantle.

"And what made this project so important to you?" Ironwood's question seemed to have an obvious answer.

"It was the last project my mother worked on," Joey told him. The general's face told the wolf that this answer was unsatisfying.

"But what made it so important to her?" Ironwood rephrased his original question with a little more enthusiasm. Joey felt that the general was leading the conversation to a specific point.

"She wanted to give the people of Remnant a chance to fight back," Joey spoke, realizing where exactly the general was steering him, "she believed that every citizen from every kingdom was capable of protecting themselves and deserved the chance to know it."

"Now what if I told you that I could give you the opportunity to help the people of Remnant fight back," Joey knew that the general's approach wouldn't involve arming citizens. He believed in taking humans off of the battlefield. "Without putting them in harm's way." That was it. The words Joey had expected to hear from Atlas' leader. "From what Ozpin has told me you and your team have encountered the White Fang on numerous occasions and I am sure that you are well aware of the technology that they have stolen from us."

"A shipment of Paladins," Joey answered, allowing the General's words to pass without offense. Their difference in opinion did not currently matter, all that mattered was that Ironwood was about to present him with an opportunity to help the people of Remnant and his company.

"Were you aware that they had also stolen Paladin blueprints as well?" Ironwood's revelation of Atlas' true loss was startling to Joey. The general was sharing privileged information with him that was suddenly making him wary of the entire conversation.

"Yes," Joey swallowed as he thought to those blueprints.

"There are rumors that White Fang recruiting forums are broadcasting them to criminal organizations across the kingdoms," Ironwood grimaced, "which is why I need you. I want you to take the Paladin design and expand it. We need a weapon that will be prepared to compete against and even destroy Paladins by the number." Joey's weariness had become shock as he turned to face the general with a nervous thought ticking in the back of his mind. "So the question is: Can you do it?"

"It..." Joey had begun to speak when that nervous thought began to flourish. Before it could blossom he forced it back into the depths of his mind, focusing on the general's stern yet hopeful expression. "I would need to look at the plans first before I make my decision. I don't want to make you a promise that I can't keep." Joey had found his confidence again with this course of action. He would be uncommitted but still have a chance to discuss the idea with Argent, his adoptive father. His mind had already begun turning on how he would accomplish this task without letting the general know that his designs had begun the day the White Fang went public with the Paladin designs a month ago.

* * *

"Sir are you certain sending team FWCS out is a good idea?" Glynda Goodwitch had finally found her way to Professor Ozpin's office to protest his decision.

"Glynda," Ozpin started with his hands clasped together and his elbows resting on the table in front of him. "We must have faith in our students. Sending a team to aide team MARN is a show of good faith between kingdoms. Mr. Beryl was quite homesick and having team FWCS accompany them back to Vacuo ensures that both teams will be able to dispatch the Grimm plaguing Oar's Rest with ample time to return for the tournament."

"But, sir, team FWCS was just attacked by the White Fang," Glynda continued her protest with genuine concern for the students, "is it truly the wisest decision to send them away from Vale?" Ozpin regarded her with soft brown eyes.

"It is," Ozpin reached for the mug of coffee that was sitting to the left of his desk. Picking it up and looking down before taking a sip of the liquid inside. "From the recordings we got of their fight in town Teams FWCS and MARN would have no problem dealing with the two assassins. More interestingly I want to send FWCS to confirm a suspicion of my own." He placed his scroll onto his desk as a screen appeared with a video paused on the exact moment that Weiss was pulled into the alley by chains. "I believe the assassins may have been after Ms. Schnee and not the members of FWCS." Glynda watched as the recording played, seeing that Weiss was wrapped into the chains and viciously dragged backward and away from the FWCS members. Uncertain of Ozpin's plan she swallowed, deciding to trust the headmaster as she had in the past.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ron pulled the bolt back on Viridi Lanius to chamber a round from the fresh clip he had just slammed into the receiver. As the bolt came back he could see the 5.56 round slide into its new home between the firing pin and the barrel. Ron had adapted his combat gear for a desert climate. His regular dark green armor plate rested over a plain black t-shirt, exposing toned arms, and he wore dark tan combat pants with pouches running down along the legs. A pair of worn combat boots adorned his feet, laced tight to his body. He wore a jade beret with a patch sewn into the fabric, depicting an emblem on the front part the hung down over his forehead. A shield with a WA-47 rifle crossed diagonally over it, his own personal crest. His neck was tied with a jade bandana that was just a shade lighter than his chest plate and shoulder armor. His forearms were also covered in armor of a similar color with his scroll resting on the underside of his left forearm in an open position.

"So Joey what were you doing with Ironwood anyway?" Elodie asked the wolf faunus who was crouched over his gun case. The team had turned the living room of their home on the edge of Forever Fall into a temporary armory. Elodie had three sets of her collapsible quiver, Flurry, set out in front of her alongside a case of dust vials fitted to Tempest's dust wheels. Her armor had also been set up for the environment they were about to enter. Here jumpsuit had been traded out for tights that covered her legs and chest in a similar way to the jumpsuit, only this outfit revealed her midriff, toned abs and the top of her waist. She still had shoulder armor as well as gauntlets that allowed her to pull Tempest's string more comfortably. The tight fitted top held the same cross as her jumpsuit but it was much smaller, resting on the fabric at the center of her chest. Her boots were much less pronounced than Ron's, consisting of a much smaller frame and more narrow toes, with an arch at the bottom and a large flat heel.

"Oh not much," he said with a pause that Ron attributed to his focus on his weapons. In front of Joey's open gun case were his rifle, shotgun-sword, and twin pistols. All of his weapons were polished to perfection as he began loading them, handguns first, meticulously. His armor resembled the same armor he wore the night at the warehouse when they ran into team RWBY. While the dark brown duster he wore lacked sleeves it still had the shoulder armor from his other duster and his chest plate was still in place. His arms were much less pronounced than Ron's. The wolf's slacks had been replaced with a pair of dark blue jeans that were worn at the knees. He had small kneepads covering the worn area of his pants. His combat boots were much more pointed than Ron's, with harsh sharpened spurs that hung off of the back. His gas mask and helmet sat to the side of his gun case and one of his wide hats sat on the other side. "Ironwood was just praising my work on the Wilhelm initiative."

"That's strange," Chris chimed in from his position on the couch. He had finished his preparations long before his teammates by packing extra sets of his dust infused gloves and plasma fist tape into a small pouch on the roof of Joey's gun case. Chris had been dressed down as well, abandoning the kimono and sweatshirt for a brown gi with tan fighting pants. He still had the rope tied around his waist. His feet were naked with a pair of thin sandals sitting next to them. "With all of Atlas' attempts at removing people from the battlefield it's a surprise that Ironwood would praise a project intended to put civilians in a position to fight Grimm."

"He was praising the Wilhelm rifle itself," Joey sighed as he finished with his pistols. His attention turned to take count of the moon clips that rested on harness next to the pouch that held Chris' equipment. "Said the design was ingenious," Joey smirked as his hand took a handful of shells from a box within his case. The .40-70 rounds easily twice the length of the .45 long he used to load his handguns. One by one he placed the rounds through the feed chamber of Sunflower, the lever action rifle his father had built. After loading about 15 rounds into the weapon he chambered the first round by cocking the lever.

"Come on man," Ron patted him on the shoulder, "that's a good thing! It deserves more than some small smile." He was surprised to see Joey so calm about a compliment like this. Maybe it was just the fact that this mission was going to take Joey away from the new huntress in his life but it's not like Ron wasn't going through the same thing. Ron shook the thought as he placed his assault rifle onto the table, trading it for the large sword that rested across the platform. He inspected Grimm Reminder, a mere touch of the handle sent a familiar energy through his body. The sword was calling to his aura, as it always did when he wielded it. After inspecting it he put it back down, the blades call dying from his mind. Joey was loading his last weapon, Forget-Me-Not, the 20 gauge shotgun with a folded sword blade running along the top of the barrel was much shorter than Sunflower but at close range it packed a punch. As the breach of the weapon loaded Joey had already taken a hand full of shells from a different ammo box within his case. He began loading the weapon as Ron turned to Elodie.

"Any of you ever met these Maroon kids?" Ron asked his team over the sound of Joey's shells sliding into the shotgun. He finished the loading process with an audible sound of the lever chambering a shell.

"Nah," Joey shook his head, "they're from Vacuo and we haven't exactly had time to interact with the visitors from Shade, Atlas and Haven."

"Well whose fault is that?" Ron raised an eyebrow to his teammate, sarcasm dripping from his question. Joey was the one constantly dragging them into sabotaging the White Fang which often led to them not being around Beacon itself during their free time.

"This is gonna suck isn't it?" Elodie asked as she attached one of her collapsed quivers to her left hip, the second to her right and the third to her back along the belt that was fastened to her waist.

"Yep," The matter of fact statement mixed with Chris' smile and a large hand being place on the rabbit's shoulder was the fighter's way of telling her to deal with it but her smile back at him told Ron that she could.

"Ron you know you love messin' up their plans nearly as much as I do," Joey snickered as his weapons were carefully packed into his case.

"Yes I do," Ron smiled as he placed Lanius' strap over his head. The weight of the weapon felt good against his body as he let it hang so that he could place Grimm Reminder on its magnetic holster against his back. The magnet on his back plate held the blade in place as he let it go. "But right now I'm looking to mess with a few Grimm, you game for it?" He extended a hand to the wolf as Joey closed the case and locked it into place.

"Always," He took Ron's arm as his leader helped him up, "just try to keep up with my kill count, boss."

"Last I checked Ruby had you beat," Ron joked as Joey scowled at him.

"Is this gonna be a thing now?" Joey asked him as he looked to Elodie and Chris, "so I let a cute girl kill a few extra beowulves and suddenly my record on the team goes out the window?"

"To be fair I'm right behind you," Elodie winked at him.

"No, no El," Joey bantered with the rabbit as he picked up his case. "We talked about this, that Goliath we took down for CFVY was a team effort, just cause you got the finishing hit does not mean it counts to you." Joey looked to Ron and Chris for support who just shrugged.

"Come on team," Ron tried to get them focused and on the move as he picked up an extra case. This one wasn't for weapons though. It was a guitar case that carried the acoustic guitar he brought with him on long missions. "Bullheads up in one hour so we oughta be there waiting for Team MARN." Chris began towards the door, followed by Elodie and then Ron with Joey carrying his case behind them.

"And even if we did count it," the wolf was still on about the Goliath as the team stepped out of their home and into the brisk morning air at the edge of Forever Fall where the house was located. Ron saw that the sun was barely rising as Joey shut the door of the home behind him. "It still only counts as one."

"Joey," The familiar voice of the rabbit faunus reached Yang's ears as she made her way down the corridor leading from the dorms to the gym. She was wearing a pair of exercise shorts and an old t-shirt with her hair tied up into a messy pony tail. With Ruby scheduled for release from the infirmary this morning her focus had shifted to training for the tournament. "I put a plasma arrow through its eye! If that doesn't count as a kill than what does?"

* * *

"Elodie," Joey's accent rang through the corridor as Yang rounded the corner, noticing that she was behind team FWCS. The strange part was that while she was completely dressed down, Ron's team was dressed up. "I put about 20 shells in the damn thing, Coco nearly overheated her gun tearing its leg off and who summoned up the plasma for your arrow in the first place?" Yang wasn't sure what the argument was about but it sure sounded like a lot more fun than the last fight they had all been in.

"Heya hotshot," Yang called as she saw Ron's entire body turn in attention to the nickname that was quickly becoming her go to for calling him. "Where are you guys off to?"

"Oh hey Yang," Ron acknowledged her with a weak chuckle as the blonde approached the team. Joey and Elodie's argument seemed to stop for a moment but the rabbit hadn't taken her eyes, a soft rust color, off of the wolf. "Turns out Ozpin is shipping us off to Vacuo to assist another team in an extermination mission." Yang felt a slight bit of disappointment at this, seeing that she was starting to enjoy the company of FWCS' leader.

"What you were gonna leave without telling me?" Yang jokinkly placed a fist between the jade chest plate and shoulder armor, her attention turning to Joey. "And you, headed out without telling my sister? She told me how you snuck into her room. What's the deal with you two anyway?" Joey avoided eye contact with the blonde as he adjusted his gun belt.

"What? Do I have to report all my moves to you now?" Ron joked back.

"No.." Yang's face took on a more serious look as she thought of a real reason to be irritated with him for suddenly leaving. "I just, I was so mad yesterday that I never got to thank you."

"For what?" Ron asked as he looked back to his team. Chris rolled his eyes as his arms crossed and he turned to look back in the direction they were originally headed.

"Well everything," the blonde blurted out. She didn't know where to begin so she just did the first thing that came to mind. In an instant Yang found herself pulling the other team's leader into a strong hug, her arms resting between his neck and the hilt of the sword that hung from his back. "You helped save Ruby's life," she said softly as she noticed that his arms hesitated at first before hugging her back. After a moment his hands moved to separate them, Yang's cheeks turning a slight pink as she realized she was prolonging the embrace.

"We're hunters," Ron told her, "we have to look out for each other. Ruby would have done the same for me I'm sure." The burning in Yang's cheeks intensified as she realized he hadn't completely broken the embrace, his hands still on her waist.

"Yea well make sure your team looks out for you out there," She laughed, "otherwise it won't be Ruby that has to come bail you out."

"Don't worry about me sunshine," Ron invoked the same inflection he had used the previous day when referring to her, "just don't go getting into any fights with the White Fang while I'm gone."

"No more White Fang for me," Yang told him as she finally removed her arms from his shoulders, "from here on out I'm training for the tournament."

"Good luck," Ron told her, "we gotta get down to the bullheads but I'll shoot you a text when we land."

"And Joey what about you?" She asked the gunslinger.

"What about me?" He looked confused.

"You gonna let my sister know that you're leaving?"

"Already did," Joey produced his scroll and waved it in a small motion to show that he was a step ahead of the blonde.

"Guys can we get going?" Chris asked.

"We probably should," Ron acknowledged his team's fighter, "Bullhead's up in 20 minutes." The team said their goodbyes to the blonde brawler and after a moment of watching them walk away she turned, with a new energy in her step as she moved toward a day of tournament training.

* * *

Mason Gray and his team were waiting at the Bullhead departure pad. They had packed light for the mission, each of his teammate relegated to one pack and their weapons. Mason knew that they didn't need to bring much since they would be going to a port town that, by all reports, was still intact. Their mission would be to keep it that way. He checked his scroll for the time, noting that they had fifteen minutes until the bullhead was scheduled to depart. He and his team stood close to the large aircraft in an attempt to avoid the chilling bite of the fall morning. Mason was somewhat lucky that his combat gear included a pair of pants. Mason wore a black leather vest over a short sleeved white t-shirt with a pair of black leather pants. He had a brown leather harness that hung pouches from his chest and his signature stone necklace hung around his neck on a thin leather necklace. Raze, his dust powered sledge hammer, rested along with his pack against the Bullhead. The hammer itself was about half of his height. Both sides of the hammer's head had a circular surface that was connected to the rectangular block which housed all of the weapons mechanical pieces. The pole of the weapon was wrapped in a mesh grip on the bottom half with leather on the top half. He looked to the teammate who had gotten them this mission in the first place. Azule was shivering as he moved closer to the bullhead in an attempt to warm avoid the slight breeze. He had not yet changed into his combat armor and the shorts he currently wore offered little protection from the cold air and his face showed obvious frustration with the weather.

"Come on Azule," Mason caught the amphibian's attention, "cheer up. You'll be back in Vacuo in no time."

"Yea," Azule nodded, his frown unchanged. "But being in Vacuo later isn't going to warm me up now." The amphibian's complaint was met with a touch on his shoulder by Team MARN's largest member. Ray Stewart's hand glowed with the slight orange-yellow of his aura as Azule's shivering stopped.

"There," Ray smiled. He had followed his leader's example and had already donned his combat gear. He wore tan pants with dark shin armor and kneepads. He'd also placed an armored black chest plate depicting a stylized golden sun over his chainmail shirt. A single pauldron sat on his right shoulder and an armguard over his left forearm. The armguard had several scratch marks across it. Ray's neck was wrapped in a tan shemagh with black squares. A large claymore sat within a large brown leather scabbard on his back, the handguard a shining gold. "Now cheer up. We get to slay some extra Grimm before the tournament!" Mason regarded his teammate's cheery attitude about the mission with a smile of his own. While it was mainly for Azule's benefit that they were returning home he felt it would be good practice for the upcoming competition.

"I really wish we could just take a break," Azule sighed, "I just want to swim without worrying about a school of Blackjaws chasing me down."

"You should be happy to rid your precious ocean of those creatures," Mason's silver haired partner chimed in. Nickole Luna had elected to wear her combat armor as well. The silver armor consisted of a breast plate depicting a crescent moon, reminiscent of a time before Remnant's moon was shattered, silver plated gauntlets that formed to a point between her middle and ring fingers, greaves, a belt with the same moon symbol as her chest and black tights underneath. Her weapon was held to her belt on a hook. The large crescent blade appeared to be made of the same silver as her armor and the handle was wrapped in a black leather grip. "Any chance to cleanse something sacred of these beasts should always bring a smile to one's face."

"We won't be cleansing anything if Team FWCS doesn't show," Azule scoffed, his shoulders shuttering as the cold returned to him. As if on cue with Azule's next complaint a team of four approached the bullhead that MARN had been standing in front of. Mason recognized two of the boys from the team as the ones who Azule had bumped into in class. The first thing that Mason had noticed was the disproportioned amount of gear each team member was carrying. One carried a guitar case and two weapons, a sword and rifle. The one with a unique accent was pulling a wheeled case full of gear. The rabbit carried a small backpack with two blades in sheathes on her thighs. The final member of the team carried nothing at all.

"Team FWCS?" Mason called out to them as he approached the four newcomers. The jade armored student with the rifle hanging from his neck stepped forward and extended a hand.

"Ronald Feldgaunt," he introduced himself as Mason took his hand and shook it, "Leader of team FWCS. This is Joey Wulfechester, sniper and weapons expert."

"Howdy," Joey regarded Mason with his hat as he and the other two stopped.

"Christopher Russet," Ron continued. "Dust specialist and CQC."

"Hello," the larger one smiled at Mason with a slight wave.

"Elodie Snow, Archer specializing in combat utility."

"And keeping you all on track and alive," The rabbit smirked at her leader before looking to Mason, "Nice to meet you."

"You as well," Mason answered, "I'm Mason Gray and this is Team Maroon." Mason began by pointing to his teammates who were still close to the bullhead. "That's Azule Beryl, Ray Stewart and Nickole Luna. So was that intro rehearsed or..?" Mason was curious as he looked over the team one more time. Ron paused with a shocked face as though Mason had discovered one of his most well guarded secrets.

"Only sometimes," Ron recovered with a chuckle as the two leaders began to walk back toward the bullheads.

* * *

The introductions were kept short as Ron and Mason got their teams loaded into the single bullhead that would be their home for the trip to Oar's Rest. Ron had occasionally caught the unarmored member of team MARN, Azule, staring across at his team and the leader cleared his throat before speaking, "Something wrong Sharkbait?" Ron yelled over the roar of the bullhead's engines, invoking the nickname he had heard Ray use days before. Even with the doors shut the sound of the engines combined with the speed at which they were travelling made for a loud commotion that Ron had to compete with.

"Uh," Azule's noise of hesitation was barely audible, "no nothing's wrong." The unarmored boy looked away from Ron and FWCS' leader noticed that the large swordsman, Ray, had also averted his eyes from their team.

"Azule heard a rumor that your team is bad luck," Nickole spoke up. Despite the elevation of her voice her tone was matter of fact. "That you got your huntsman killed during your first mission." Ron was taken aback by how direct the silver haired girl was but that feeling was quickly replaced as his eyes dropped toward the floor. Chris had also moved his gaze from the other team toward the floor. Elodie and Joey were not exempt either, the wolf's eyes hiding behind his hat and the rabbit's ears obviously drooped over eyes that had suddenly become a melancholic blue.

"Nickole!" Ray exclaimed, "We can't just bring something like that up!"

"And why not?" The silver haired girl questioned him. Ron was still avoiding eye contact as he listened to them go back and forth. "If it's just a rumor they can tell us right now and alleviate Azule's worries."

"There ain't nothing to alleviate," Joey spoke up. His comment stung for Ron and it was visible on the faces of every member of the team.

"It's not a rumor," Ron sighed, "but if we were going to tell you about it you would need to know about the huntsman first." Ron swallowed as he summoned up the strength to relive one of his most painful memories.


End file.
